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Areas of Interest
August 18th, 2014
Production Tax Incentives for Video Games
While tax incentives for film and television productions receive a lot of publicity, many states offer valuable business incentives for the production or development of video games as well. In some states the incentives can be very significant -- e.g., as high as a 35% of qualified spending. Some credits are transferable. And in some jurisdictions developers may even receive cash refunds for unused credits. An incentive can make investment in the project more attractive, or even become the decisive factor in whether a game gets made or not. Whether you're a start-up deciding where to launch a new game production company, or an established developer deciding where to base a new development team, knowing where the incentive programs are can be critical.
To help our clients and friends identify the different states that make production tax incentives available for video game production, we put together an overview of the current terms and requirements of the programs for video games offered in the United States. You can read the summary here.
We have many years of experience helping clients apply tax incentive programs to their entertainment ventures. If you have a question about state video game production tax incentives, or about any other interactive entertainment issue, contact Sean F. Kane at (212) 705 4845 or skane@fkks.com, or any other member of the Frankfurt Kurnit Interactive Entertainment Group.
Other Technology Law Alerts
‘Spectacularly Transformative’ — and Still Liable: The AI Copyright Showdown Begins
In the first federal court ruling on whether training generative AI models with copyrighted materials constitutes fair use, U.S. District Judge William Alsup issued a mixed but monumental decision on June 24, 2025, in Bartz et al. v. Anthropic PBC (N.D. Cal., No. 24-05417 WHA). The judge hailed Anthropic’s Claude model as “among the most transformative many of us will see in our lifetimes,” noting its ability to mimic human reasoning and writing by processing millions of digitized texts. He found that the use of copyrighted books to train such models was “spectacularly transformative,” stating that the LLMs “trained upon works not to race ahead and replicate or supplant them — but to turn a hard corner and create something different.” Read more.
June 26 2025
Risky Business Just Got Riskier - DOJ Changes Stance on Internet Gambling
Last week the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) made waves in the online gambling industry with an Opinion interpreting the Wire Act (18 U.S.C. § 1084). In the Opinion, DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel concluded that most sections of the Wire Act are not limited to sports-related wagers and instead prohibit the use of interstate wires for any bets or wagers. Read more.
January 23 2019
Video Games With Advanced Communications Services Must Now Be Accessible to Players With Disabilities
An important legal waiver recently expired and as a result, video game developers and publishers must now ensure that new and substantially upgraded games comply with the accessibility requirements of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (“CVAA”). Read more.
January 7 2019
