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Alberta to Eliminate Digital Media Tax Credit

Oct 28

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If you’ve ever wondered why so many gaming developers and publishers have studios in Canada, it’s because of various forms of government support given to these companies to create jobs. Various levels of government have provided funding to companies in the forms of loans, grants and tax breaks.

One province that just put some more skin in the game to promote gaming and similar digital industries has just gotten right out of it. The recently elected government of Alberta has announced that their upcoming provincial budget will eliminate the province’s Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit which might leave some current and future plans for developers in the province in question.

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Here Are Some Canadian Pokemon to Celebrate the Canadian Launch of Pokemon Go

Jul 19

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Our long national nightmare is finally over. Pokemon Go has officially launched in Canada and you’ll be dodging people trying to catch ’em all while driving in your car, walking down the sidewalk or even in your own home. While Nintendo, Niantic and Game Freak won’t do much anything to celebrate this monumental occasion, artist Darren Calvert has some pretty good ideas with this gallery of Canadian Pokemon. Tell me that you wouldn’t want to catch a Newfie or Bobndug.

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Is Ubisoft Overcharging Canadian Steam Users?

Jun 22

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ubisoft-cad-price-headerDuring Steam’s Monster Summer Sale, I noticed something during the Tom Clancy franchise sale. The price of the upcoming Rainbow Six: Siege is $80 CAD. The US dollar price is $60. If you were to pay for the game in USD and have your credit card company convert it to CAD, a Canadian customer would spend $73. That’s an inexplicable loss of $7 as a sort of living in Canada tax (when no sales tax is charged by Steam in Canada) from a company whose biggest development studio is in Canada and receives subsidies from various levels of Canadian government.

It’s not just the Canadians who are losing out for not living in America. According to the Steam All Region Price Checker extension, British customers are being charged the equivalent of $80 USD and others in the EU will be paying the equivalent of $68 USD.

So why are certain countries paying more than other and who is at fault for the price discrepancies?

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Steam Converts Canadian Gamers to Canadian Dollar Pricing

Steam Converts Canadian Gamers to Canadian Dollar Pricing

Oct 9

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steam-canadian-dollar-bannerWith a couple of week’s notice, Valve has added local currency pricing for Canadians. This past Tuesday, October 7th, Canadians found the Steam Store showing prices in Canadian dollars rather than US dollars. This resulted in a price increase on the face of the store but this may actually be working to the benefit of the Canadian consumer.

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Sony Raises PS4 Console and Game Prices in Canada

Mar 17

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ps4-moneyBack in January, we brought a story about EB Games Canada quietly raising prices on almost all of their new releases from $60 to upwards of $70 whether they were on current or last-gen consoles. Last month, Microsoft quietly announced that the price of Xbox One games would increase to $65 each. Now, Sony has announced that the price of the PS4 console in Canada will increase along with the price of games and peripherals.

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EB Games Canada is Quietly Raising Prices

Jan 23

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eb-games-canada-logoThe Canadian currency market is probably not something most gamers pay attention to but it might be something that will concern Canadian gamers if what EB Games is doing becomes an industry-wide trend.

The Canadian arm of GameStop has very quietly raised the prices of some much-anticipated upcoming games. Rather than being $60 as it was for new games in previous years, EB Games is charging up to $70 for new games that are available for pre-order.

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Canadian Mobile Phone Companies to Provide Government Access to Data

Sep 18

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mobile-phone-data-privacy-headerIt’s not just the NSA and the United States government that are monitoring your data. Ahead of this week’s wireless airwave license auction, the Canadian government has required all phone companies bidding to agree to allow the government access to data transmitted on their networks, including the monitoring of phone calls.

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Bitcoin Transactions are Taxable in Canada

Apr 30

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one-bitcoinApril 30th is the deadline to file your personal income tax return in Canada. If you haven’t filed your taxes yet (and aren’t self-employed), you might want to get that taken care of but should take note of the latest tax edict from Canada Revenue Agency.

In response to an inquiry by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation about it, the CRA has said that just because Bitcoin purchases and sales are done online doesn’t mean that they are exempt from tax. The use of bitcoins are considered taxable by Canada’s tax authority.

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Canada Will Be Ready for The Zombie Apocalypse

Today’s update on zombie apocalypse preparation comes from the Canadian Parliament (which I visited last week, coincidentally). During the Members’ Statements portion of the day in the House of Commons, Pat Martin, Member of Parliament for Winnipeg, asked Minister of Foreign Affairs John Baird if a plan was in place to protect against a zombie invasion/apocalypse.

I love having a good bit of fun with zombies and the like but why is government time being wasted addressing this?

(You’ll probably have to turn up your volume. The video is very quiet.)

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