Australian developers are weathering the global economic slowdown better than those in the US or Europe, says Tom Crago, president of the Game Developers Association of Australia.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Crago admits 2009 has been a tougher year than 2008, but the Australian industry has coped better than most.
“We’ve been relatively resilient — certainly we’ve felt the effects of the downturn, and I’m sure most Australian companies are finding it more difficult to procure pay-for-service work than in the past. But we’re weathering the storm — with the exception of Pandemic closing, there have been no casualties in the Australian market.
From the perspective of a lot of companies I know it’s been an opportunity to fine-tune their sales processes as they’ve had to become more competitive, in order to win the types of jobs that they’ve become accustomed to.
So absolutely a tougher time, but ultimately we’re hanging in there.
We’re probably travelling a little better, actually [than the US and Europe] , although it must be remembered that we’re a much, much smaller market.”
Crago says that this is despite the lack of government subsidies for the local industry, an issue he claims he will continue to fight for.
GDAA’s Tom Crago [GamesIndustry.biz]
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