{"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

\"\"
Opportunity lost: The global games industry is bigger than film and music<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an industry sector that by revenue is bigger than film, television and music, but the size of the Australian video game industry is a fraction of our peers. That means we are neglecting a real opportunity for job creation,\u201d Mr Watts told InnovationAus.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to be identifying new industries with high-growth potential, and gaming has the potential to create a large number of high-skilled, high-quality and high-paying jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labor is currently working to develop some policies targeted at the games development sector and will unveil them in the lead-up to the next federal election.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still in the policy development process, and we\u2019ll have more specific things to say closer to the next federal election,\u201d Mr Watts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the election of the Abbott government there has been no federal support whatsoever for the gaming industry, and that\u2019s a real tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look at the talent and innovation in the Australian sector \u2013 we have indie games that are literally world beaters, but what we don\u2019t have is a deep and diverse sector. We\u2019re open-minded about the policy situations that are most appropriate here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal policies need to help those working in the sector pursue whole careers there without having to leave Australia, Mr Watts said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can work for small, nimble startups, very large companies managing large teams and projects, and work with the board of a public company. All of those different experiences people want to get at different points of their career to have a rewarding and fledgling career, and created as many opportunities for Australia to do that here in Australia and not having to go overseas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Senator McGrath, who helped convene the video games group in Parliament, recently called for a 30 per cent tax offset for video game developers in Australia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSomething Australia should do, and I strongly support, is to introduce a 30 per cent tax offset for video games to grow a new information-based export industry, attract millions in foreign investment and create thousands of jobs,\u201d Senator McGrath said in Parliament in September.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many other countries there are tax incentives for games development. These exist in Canada, Singapore, France and the UK. Australia already has tax offsets for the film, TV, post-production and digital effects sectors but lacks this same support for domestic games development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) chief executive Ron Curry welcomed the newfound focus on games development in Canberra.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that billions of players around the world engage with games on a daily basis and we welcome the formal pathway Tim Watts and Senator James McGrath have created to formally engage with the Australian games industry and game players,\u201d Mr Curry said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe group has already expressed a desire to ensure that Australia remains competitive on a global stage and takes advantage of all of the opportunities a complete video game development ecosystem will create economically, creatively and culturally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Lack of support for games sector is a tragedy<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on InnovationAus<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A complete lack of federal 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. Led by Mr Watts and Liberal Senator James McGrath, a Parliamentary Friends of Video Games group was officially launched in…<\/p>\n

The post Lack of support for games sector is a tragedy<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1906,1907,1908,1892,1909,1905,1893,1910,1911],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6957"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6958,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6957\/revisions\/6958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}