Norwegian media outlet Dagbladet.no writes today about Norway's cultural minister wanting to add a new and worldwide unique tax to videogames, to "give more funds back to Norwegian publishers and developers". On the counterscale, the industry itself does not want this arrangement, since it'll hurt imported and translated games and make games in general so expensive that people will stop buying them alltogether. This does not deterr the minister however, and he cites that cinema and home video market already has this tax, and has yielded fabulous results. Well, the audience disagrees, strongly. A new DVD in Norway costs 130 NOK and upwards, mostly ranging in the 200 NOK area which would equal about 35-40 $ in todays exchange, and a ticket at the cinema costs 80 NOK and upwards most places, while movie rentals set you back 50 NOK.

Videogames here are already the most expensive in the world, with new console games usually costing around 550-600 NOK, and this tax would add another 100-150 NOK on top of that. I can't speak for the masses, but such an extreme price would certainly have me heaving for breath and turning to importing or even piracy in most cases. Even the biggest game producer in Norway, Funcom (Age of Conan) are opposed to the idea, and one of their PR managers replied on my mail that "This will certainly not benefit us at all, our games are mostly based on subscription fee's, and this tax would make the initial purchase up to 30% more costly, which surely would turn people away from the game, loosing us longterm income via fees."

So, the industry is opposed to it, the audience most certainly is in the highest tax nation in the world today, but politicians press on and you can bet your life this will go through... Mummelmann out.

PS: Linky for those who read Norwegian or simply for those who want to see this beast of a minister and his $$ grin beside Conan the Barbarian... http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2008/03/07/529080.html

Well that's pretty lame.

Those wacky Norweigians.

They add tax to everything here, there's tax on VAT figures and VAT on tax figures, VAT on bill fees in banks and fees on payments of VAT's and tax... Its simply crazy and it keeps getting worse.
These taxes and amounts of special fees are illegal in the EU, unfortunately Norway si not in the EU.
Estimates from Norsk Statistisk Sentralbyrå or; Norwegian Statistics Bureau show that through fees and taxes, roughly 86 % of a Norwegian average salary goes right back to the government... Lunacy in my eyes, but its the high cost of the worlds most expensive wellfare system!

Mummelmann said: They add tax to everything here, there's tax on VAT figures and VAT on tax figures, VAT on bill fees in banks and fees on payments of VAT's and tax... Its simply crazy and it keeps getting worse. These taxes and amounts of special fees are illegal in the EU, unfortunately Norway si not in the EU. Estimates from Norsk Statistisk Sentralbyrå or; Norwegian Statistics Bureau show that through fees and taxes, roughly 86 % of a Norwegian average salary goes right back to the government... Lunacy in my eyes, but its the high cost of the worlds most expensive wellfare system!

 86%?  Daaaamn.  Why not just give them your whole check and have the government distribute everything based on what you theoretically make.