{"id":6957,"date":"2020-12-21T23:11:19","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T23:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationaus.com\/?p=15787"},"modified":"2020-12-21T23:11:19","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T23:11:19","slug":"lack-of-support-for-games-sector-is-a-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/21\/lack-of-support-for-games-sector-is-a-tragedy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lack of support for games sector is a tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"
A complete lack of federal<\/strong> support for local games development is a \u201creal tragedy\u201d and Labor will bring policies focused on the sector to the next election, shadow assistant minister for cybersecurity Tim Watts says.<\/p>\n Led by Mr Watts and Liberal Senator James McGrath, a Parliamentary Friends of Video Games group was officially launched in federal parliament earlier this month, with a goal to educate politicians on the local games development sector and push for industry support.<\/p>\n The sector has not received any federal support since the Australian Interactive Games Fund was cut by the Abbott government in 2014, and companies operating in the sector are ineligible for the tax offsets on offer to other arts sectors such as movie production.<\/p>\n The government must view games development as a jobs-creating sector, Mr Watts said.<\/p>\n