At this week’s Digital Distribution Summit in Melbourne, Film Victoria announced a new funding program to assist Australian developers of downloadable games.
Held on September 29, the Summit brought together a bunch of clever local and international industry types to discuss how digital distribution is changing the model of games development. Speakers included David Edery, former manager of Xbox Live Arcade, Rob Murray from Flight Control dev Firemint, Krome CEO Robert Walsh, and Simon Carless, organiser of the Independent Games Festival.
Film Victoria’s Downloadable Games Initiative will support local developers to create a prototype of a digital media project for online distribution. Five projects will be selected each year to receive up to AU$75,000 in funding.
Film Victoria CEO Sandra Sdraulig said:
“The new Downloadable Games Initiative will see Film Victoria invest more than half a million dollars to support five new projects in the next 12 months. With the Australian game industry expected to increase from $1.5 billion to $2.2 billion in 2013, digital distribution presents significant new business opportunities to local game companies. Our aim is to support and inspire the local industry to take advantage of this burgeoning market.”
Once again, it seems the Victorian government is leading the way when it comes to offering financial support to our local industry. It’d be nice if the other states followed suit.
New funding for digital game distribution [Digital Media, thanks Jamie!]
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