Five bodies, including the Korea Game Developers Association, the Korea Association of Game Industry and the Korea e-Sports Association, said in a joint statement on Friday that games account for about 60 percent of the country's content exports yet are excluded from the production-cost tax credit available to film, broadcast, over-the-top and webtoon producers.
The groups said existing research and integrated investment credits fail to capture the outlays unique to game-making, such as planning, scenario writing, graphics and localization. Britain, France and Canada, they noted, run production rebate schemes of 25 percent to 30 percent or more.
"A tax credit applied after the fact, to companies that actually host tournaments and spend the money, is an indispensable system," the associations said, warning that discretionary grants alone would not spur private investment.
Citing a Korea Creative Content Agency study, they said a production-cost credit could generate about 2.26 trillion won ($1.59 billion) in output and roughly 15,000 jobs over five years.
The associations also called for extending an expiring e-sports credit, now covering 10 percent of operating costs for tournaments held outside the capital region, urging that it be widened nationwide and raised to 20 percent before its scheduled expiry at the end of 2026.
AJP Takeaways
• The government's 2026 tax reform proposal moves the existing e-sports credit toward a spending-based grant system, a shift the industry opposes as narrower and less predictable than an automatic credit.
• The push reflects a persistent gap: webtoons won a production credit effective 2026, but games and music remain excluded, despite repeated legislative attempts from both major parties.
• The Ministry of Economy and Finance has resisted, arguing the film-oriented credit targets sectors with strong nation-branding and tourism spillovers — a rationale the game groups directly contest with their export-share figure.
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