California has been known to house several video game companies and is noted for having the largest population of employees in the video game industry, with Texas is listed as the state with the second highest. Texas intends to lessen the distance it falls behind California.
In their 2014-2015 budget, the incentive program for grants to film, television, and video game production for wages to Texas inhabitants has increased since the 2012-2013 budget. The budget for the incentive program made a jump of $63 million, which means the 2014-2015 budget is set to $95 million.
While this isn’t big news for smaller development companies, this could be huge news for some of the larger developers that spend at minimum $3.5 million (previously set at $5 million) in the state of Texas. The reimbursement grants have also increased from 15 to 20 percent.
Texas wants to focus its attention on drawing business to its state that will provide jobs to Texas inhabitants to increase in-state spending, and this is their justification for the new budget. Texas was one of the first states to include the video game industry into these sort of incentives.
