Welcome to Wrestling Gamers United Newsletter #350
Ahhhh it felt good to hit the sidewalk again this last week. I made a bunch of appointments with people in business, finance, education, and entertainment. So far its all going good. I learned that the University here is expanding it's game design program while at the same time switching over to the many tools and software packages that we used to create PWX. They are interested in having a few of the PWX crew consult and possibly teach within the new program. In the early stages of PWX development we had a hell of a time finding anyone remotely qualified to help us out. Now with the University training students on our platform it could mean a much easier time finding well trained help as the company grows (knock on wood).
I also got a nice little early Christmas present yesterday. I visited my local Business Development Bank of Canada branch to go over our situation. He told me we should have been entitled to a federal tax credit for all R&D expenditures. He said we should have been entitled to roughly 30% back for all programming and technical art labor costs. That would be a pretty fat refund after the last few years. And to make matters even better, here in Alberta they are apparently going to be offering their own 30% tax credit on top of the federal one already in place. So if you've got a game company and you spend a lot of your money researching and creating new game mechanics you can get a nice refund at the end of the year. That's a pretty good way for a little guy like me to be able to afford decently priced technical help.
However, seems some of those studios out in Quebec aren't totally satisfied with their tax credits and government support. They found a better way to reduce labor costs; secret salary caps. Yup, seems some of the biggest game studios in Quebec have been talking about secretly capping the wages paid to the crew between all of the different companies.
Ahhh well that's just business these days I suppose. I'm excited about seeing some actual indy wrestling here in Alberta. I'm having lunch today with the owner of the local fed and I'm looking forward to it. I had a great time with the guys around Vancouver so I'm wondering how the scene here in Alberta will differ at all. One thing I've already noticed? Way more midget wrestling in Alberta. Take that for what it's worth.
In the meantime and in-between time, that's it. Another edition of Wrestling Gamers United.