Kotick: UK tax break u-turn was a "terrible mistake"

Reacting to the UK's 2010 emergency budget, which scrapped incoming tax relief schemes for the games industry, Activision Blizzard has reportedly warned it may pull 600 jobs out of Britain.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick described the u-turn on tax relied in frank terms.

"I think it was a terrible mistake. There are so many other places that are encouraging the video games industry," he said.

The Telegraph reports claims that Activision has "refused to rule out moving its UK operations elsewhere."

While not directly threatening to up stakes and away, Kotick's reference to the lure of incentives thrown out by eager rival territories is worrying in a climate of closures, redundancies, and graduate glut. This isn't the first time Kotick has openly pondered Activision fleeing the UK.

Trade body TIGA has reported a 9 percent diminishment in the British games industry over the last financial year, and both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties supported Alistair Darling's proposed games industry tax relief pre-election.

June saw the plan's dismissal by the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.

Based in Slough, Berkshire, the British office of Activision Blizzard is home to around 600 employees.