It looks like some of the major game creators, including Rockstar, WarnerMedia and Sony have all dodged huge tax contributions in the UK due to a loophole.

Set up in 2014, the Video Game Tax Relief scheme was created in order to allow smaller businesses to work on new titles, however, in an article by The Guardian it looks like larger companies are exploiting the incentive to avoid paying millions of pounds worth of tax in the UK.

By utilising the scheme, companies like Rockstar have avoided paying large contributions whilst churning out incredibly successful titles such as Grand Theft Auto 5 (which is now the highest grossing piece of entertainment media ever).

According to a report by UK paper The Guardian, it seems that almost all of the relief provided by the scheme went to four large companies rather than benefiting the smaller studios that needed the financial assistance the most.

Due to the expenditure of the larger developers and publishers being at a higher rate, the VGTA saw them retain a far larger amount of financial assistance than the smaller studios and also saw the scheme’s funding to UK residents increase by more than a whopping £100 million a year.

Despite this, the scheme has been hailed as something vital for the growth of smaller business in the industry, but it’s clear that the issue of larger-scale company utilisation of the scheme may need to be addressed sooner rather than later.