It’s only the size of a Post-It note buried inside the 2014-15 Federal Budget papers, but it’s there, and it’s sad: the Government won’t fund the local game development industry any more.
Image: Getty
It’s called the Australian Interactive Games Fund, or at least it was before tonight.
The government quietly confirmed tonight in the Federal Budget that it would pull all of the funding from the Australian Interactive Games Fund announced in 2012 by then-Labor Arts Minister Simon Crean.
$10 million is left in the fund, and it’s all being pulled by the government.
Here’s the statement:
The Government will achieve savings of $10.0 million in 2014‑15 by ceasing the Australian Interactive Games Fund from 1 July 2014.
The savings from this measure will be redirected by the Government to repair the Budget and fund policy priorities.
Comments
103 responses to “Government Pulls Funding For Aussie Video Games Industry”
Gaming is a distraction from working. Abbott and Hockey don’t want people relaxing and playing games, they want people working all day, every day till we fall apart at the age of 70
The way superannuation is dwindling, I might have to work until the day I die.
It’s pretty crazy how they’ve been pushing for everyone to make a good investment in our super, but the fact that they tax it doesn’t help at all!
Then you’ve made Hockey and Abbott really happy; for that is their plan.
This whole budget makes “offing yourself” look like an acceptable alternative.
funny how it’s Abbott who will take the blame for all this when it’s the previous government who put us back into massive debt with their messed up budgets. Weren’t we at a pretty clean slate when Rudd took office?
You realize we’re not really in a crisis? It’s an overblown reaction to generic issues many nations have.
I suppose you also believe the GFC was Labours fault too?
No, but the BATTS insulation scheme and the School hall education revolution were not good ways to spend the government revenue and that was all part of the stimulus package.
Now I don’t believe we are close to a debt trap scenario but with the EU financial suffering has caused politicians to be on edge because of the possibility of another financial downturn in the next 5-10 years Australia will not have financial reserves to rely on this time. Furthermore with the Resource Boom winding down Australia needs to shift into service based exports otherwise we have no specialised products.
Both the batts and the school hall thing show just how far backwards our society has gone. With the batts it is the employers responsibility for doing the work properly and ensuring workplace health and safety, the other thing is how does the rate of accidents/fires compare with the norm?Where were the stats on that?
. The thing is though with a sniff of money all the shonks and sharks come out of the woodwork- and that seems to be all australia is now- because the government is trying privatise profit and socialise debt and they are successfully convincing australians of the “user pays”/”look after myself don’t care how you are doing”/no social responsibility. Or at least placing ordinary people in a world of shit so they’re flat out looking after themselves let alone the big issues. Which is why if australians can’t even carry out simple things like installing bats- a functional nbn or tackling climate change never has a hope.
Stimulus helped avert the GFC in Australia didn’t it? We got awards for handling it so well.
And yes, we will need a service and information based economy. Video games.
It put money into the economy but it also was poor in execution with the house fires and pitiful sizes of the halls (at least at the local primary school). Also the surplus did not make the Rudd Government have to pay off foreign debt and the resource boom was still generating foreign interest from China.
This is pure neoliberalist ideology at work. There is NOT a budget crisis – Australia is in amazing financial shape – we have a REVENUE issue. It was toxic rhetoric to scare the masses, stirred up by the Murdoch media and they ate it all up.
Absolutely asinine filth running this country atm. Hope they enjoy their single term in Government.
Please read more and from less biased sources. Please.
So they pull 10 million in funding from a growing industry to save money……all the while having a 10 billion dollar gap being investigated by the treasury. Fuck this government SO MUCH.
There goes my degree in 3D and Interactive Gaming.
Fucking thanks guys!
I hope that’s sarcasm that I’m not detecting. Nothing disturbs your degree in this budget unless you mean having to start paying off a student loan sooner?
I don’t think many are going to go out of their way for new hires in response to this.
I know my degree isn’t worthless. I can easily jump ship to animation or purely 3D art. Failing that, there’s always indi development.
But as I said. This will rattle any studios or companies that would be looking for what my degree could deliver. My estimate: Competition will increase and existing game developments will reduce hires for a few years.
From 10 mill that’s a big call to make. Particularly if you believe that studios are relying on government funds for new hires, which would be an insane business practice. Any business looking to survive doesn’t need government money and the positive funding changes to creative partnerships could more than offset that. Publish and be Damned! and you’ll be fine 😉
This is exactly how I feel about the whole Holden situation.
You’re confusing need with benefit from. The Australian video game industry will continue with or without the Interactive Games Fund, but the individual studios will benefit from the fund in a way that allows them to grow faster and with the freedom to establish themselves on a global scale rather than just being a sweatshop for ports.
Right now Australia desperately needs developing industries like the games industry to get big and strong ASAP in order to replace the dying manufacturing industries.
That said my main issue isn’t with the loss of the Interactive Games Fund as much as the general theme of putting too many eggs into the ‘manufacturing industries will recover’ basket while ignoring industries that actually stand a chance of being relevant in Australia 10 years from now. Go up to anyone with half a brain at National Manufacturing Week in Sydney (this week!), get them drunk enough to be honest, and ask them what state they consider Australian manufacturing to be in. They’ll all answer either dead or dying.
Manufacturing has been dead or dying for a long time. You could point the finger at Tariff and quota abloishments under the Keating government which actually made ancillary industries more productive.
With that in mind, nothing is stopping any studio here from accessing private funds or creating new projects with targeted revenue streams. The point is that they aren’t. If you really needed a minor financing arrangement for new hires with expected benefits, you don’t need government handouts you need to refocus your business.
Here’s an easy example: I have a game in development or the idea for one, and I need more money. I could go to an overrun kickstarter and compete based on the merits of my game and hope people buy in, or I can think creatively. Rather than offer just some signed concept artwork to bigger investors, I can actually offer them a percentage of proceeds/ownership of the studio. so I keep 51% as a controlling interest, but make the rest available to would be backers on a sliding scale depending on input. Now my offer is unique and has more attraction than similar offers. It’s not hard to setup, and many law firms would probably supply pro bono work around the paperwork and business structure in the hope that I become a client in future. That’s the way a market works.
As a matter of fact, if I’m in development I could create a new form of croudsourcing site that has this bult in with pre built company startup registrations and now I’m competing against kickstarter. The users can invest in things they want/think will be successful and that could actually provide a return for them to invest in other projects. Now I’m accelerating growth in gaming development and I didn’t need a government cent to do it. I just needed to be innovative.
In this scenario, I just need some talented people to build the exchange on the promise of future payment after it launches, or gain minor seed money to build it and pay a small non profit share based wage to some tech guys. I’m willing to bet that plenty of students would sign up to build this…
Lets see if anyone is still reading this page and if they want in shall we?
Yes but I think you’re missing the point. I agree that a well managed business won’t go broke without government handouts and that there are lots of options, what I disagree with is the attitude that ‘the arts’ are a burden while the potential of skilled, educated and most importantly useful people like Tib is wasted working at McDonalds. If all he knew how to do was put hub caps on cars we’d feel sympathy for him, he’d be an honest bloke trying to make a living, but instead he’s some snotty kid who wants everything handed to him.
Again, Australian games don’t need this to survive. Personally I think one of the biggest problems preventing growth in Australian games is that our small studios don’t have the freedom to turn down bad jobs that do nothing more than keep the doors open, but overall they’ll survive. However for Australia to survive I think we need to try and boost some of these developing industries and ditch this bullshit attitude that only ‘real’ jobs where you use your hands matter.
That attitude is going to turn this country into a wasteland.
I think I’ve grasped your point, and I’d want to ensure we aren’t talking at cross purposes. However, you’ve highlighted my point quite succintly. I’d prefer to steer clear of individual examples as I have no idea about your friend Tibs abilities.
I’ve started a few companies, not all succesful, but hey you learn as you go at times. I’ve also worked in and out of software for a number of years. The challenges you’re speaking of are precisely that – Challenges. None of which would seem to be insurmountable. Further, any industry can not be free of challenges without government protection.
Government protection has proved countless times to be a hindrance to competition and growth, the feedback in the newly published column on this topic from the industry looks nothing short of churlish. If some studios received funding, and some did not, would you be arguing that the studio that received funding was better than the one which did not? If the second studio went out of business because it was forced to compete unfairly against a studio that had funding, would your point still be the same, or do you argue that the more talented studio survived?
I could equally have CEO’s of studios started in Australia, post commentary to the opposite. Yet none of these studios would complain about, or speak from an arts perspective, or cultural impact. They are succesful and run by business people as a business.
Perhaps what is lacking at the moment is not talented people, but leadership? I question why out of the heads of all these studios, not one has come out and said “Hey we’re not fussed as we never accessed it anyway. We don’t need a fund as we’re succesful and growing and will be hiring even more talent soon.” The leadership types who can inspire confidence and get people to rally around a cause or project. Or why if the costs are so prohibitive to them that they haven’t figured out ways to solve this creatively between them with job shares etc.
Complaining about policy feeds a sense of entitlement, and I think that same sense is perhaps more apparent from reactions today. Instead they could have banded together to get good policy advisors and/or lobbyists to argue their case. Again, a bad business call, particularly if you were relying on a part of it.
I don’t know about you, but all this talk, and industry reaction, is actually getting me inspired to start a project. If I didn’t have three on the go, and work full time, I’d probably do it. But thats how I respond to a challenge. Its not everyones cup of tea, I freely admit that. But surely doing something constructive would make more sense.
@masterfie – Unless he’s a friend who hasn’t identified himself to me yet, I’m farily sure we don’t know eachother. He’s expressing his opinion completely free of any influence from me.
For the record, I’m 25 and left a full time job for higher education.
I also saved as much as I could from making the decision prior to leaving my job. Bought a car. Etc. I now live considerably under my means on a part-time job, propping myself up with a finite amount of savings. I’m entitled to Newstart right now, but don’t claim it simply because I really, really hate taking free money if I don’t need it.
I’m not asking for anything except my soon-to-be-profession to not be left behind because a bunch of aristocratic wankers think it’s unimportant. When, in reality, it’s a multi-billion dollar industry just waiting to explode in Australia.
The most sensible post I’ve read here
Besides, the gov money was only for established game devs with more than two games under their belt. It doesn’t help me to finish off my prototype into a proper game though, it doesn’t help me start up a indie studio.
But it doesn’t stop me from working on my prototype, when it’s done, then finding further funding through other avenues would be easy, if it’s of any value.
Just takes a bit longer to finish off, with modern pressures, cost of living.
I don’t need gov help.
I thought any/all that money was only available if you were making content that is culturally significant to Australia?
My apologies, we seem to have reached the maximum reply limit for the conversation as I’m unable to reply directly to your last point. I hadn’t put two and two together that you were whom DogMan was referencing. I’ll close by saying kudos to you for your work ethic. In the long run this will serve you better than natural ability.
But I would suggest reigning in on the vehemence a little. Your industry will still be around for a long time yet and will more than likely continue to grow. The aristocratic wankers you refer too have lots of things going on, and plenty of things that can impact the industry as a whole. A NBN that’s getting back on track, competitive and recognized unis, a growing economy with increased private investment and reduced public debt are all good things. You’ve been through a GFC, you’ll be surprised at how that experience can add up.
I’ll reference my original second point and just keep encouraging you to keep putting your work out there. It’ll get noticed and judged on its merit. Ask anyone who’s published to the public domain, learnt from it, and made it, and you’ll get there. It doesn’t mean you won’t get cheated, knocked off, etc. but every time it happens you’ll learn a little more. Go for it!
Except that Uni’s are now free to charge higher and higher rates to finish that degree. Interest rates are also planned to go up too. I feel sorry for people like @tiberath, because now they have to make some really tough choices about going into so much debt they’ll never pay it back in their lifetime or paying off their current debt as soon as possible while forsaking the career that they want to have.
Speaking of debt in my lifetime. It just clicked. I swear I remember an MP mentioning it should be the estates job to pick up lost education debt after someone passes.
Man im doing the same course this is bullshit, the video game industry is booming at the moment and our *cough* Government are to bust with budget scandels to worry about this, and the students in this diploma…and im not even going to touch the NBN!!!
i agree man, its a piss poor effort
&Reidomate below.
Don’t worry about it guys. We’ll be fine.
For starters, we’re still covered by VET Fee Help. Meaning if we stick under 50K a year we don’t have to repay. If shit does hit the fan, there’ll be very few jobs out there within our grasp that actually pay more than the education repayment threshold. One immediate problem that no one seems to grasp. No jobs pay enough to repay higher education fees when the market for the education takes a hit.
If you have no kids and generally rely on yourself for support, nothing about where you are will change. That’s the difference at the end of the course. You’ll have the knowledge to build a complete video game on your own, no study left to accomplish and if you’re living on part-time work, you suddenly have a lot of free time and the same living conditions.
Honestly the LNP was already in power when I made the decision to drop full time. I figured they’d fuck me directly or indirectly (didn’t count on both). Either way, my plan hasn’t changed. Get Education.
Build Video Game.
[Hope / ???]
Profit / FailDie.
:/ same with me 22.5 thousand dollar course straight to nothing now it seems
That money is going towards anti-piracy measures as they believe you should be supporting Australian industries.
“That money is going towards anti-piracy measures as they believe you should be supporting Australian industries”
By not having a supportive fund for australian development companies? No, they want you to buy more shit at higher prices from other countries. It’s cause they’re c***s 🙂
The saddest part is they are so incompetent I wouldn’t be suprised if that made sense to them.
Sacrifice gaming funding is fair – it’s a part of the arts and isn’t a big industry in the country that brings in a lot of money to the economy. Really, its better that it gets slashed rather than stuff.
I think you’ll find that “stuff” is getting slashed too.
just like the NBN
As long as they don’t slash “thangs” we’ll be fine… Rick is unhinged as it is. 😛
the gaming industry brings in more than film these days… and the australian mobile gaming market is one of the biggest in the world. how is that not worth investing in?
Well when was the last time you have seen a good Australian film. Australia and Max Payne were both terrible in their own rite. I can’t speak on the Governments behalf but if you are good in these arts, then what are you still doing in Australia, since America has the film market and Video games are always coming from the big American-Canada/ Japanese companies (outside the indies).
Max Payne?
Sorry, I thought it was an Australian made film due to the early release it got in Australia over the US and I couldn’t logically create a reason of why it would be released here first (disregarding time zones not to mention the time delay we usually get for movies). However I could easily use Tomorrow when the war began to justify my point.
Tomorrow could definitely have been better. It’s interesting…I think 12-year old me would have been thrilled and loved the movie despite its flaws, simply to see those characters come to life. But it was a couple of decades too late for a substandard movie like that to satisfy older me.
There are a fair few decent Australian films. It’s just that a lot of them don’t get large releases and there’s a lot of crap to sort through.
While it has artistic content and many artists and game designers might like hearing it called “the arts”, it’s actually a $1.4 TRILLION dollar global industry. Every country that has ignored it has ended up hemorrhaging talent overseas to countries that don’t, like the UK, Canada and the U.S. .
The government’s stance is that it should only invest in fields which will generate further work and growth, and they’ve clearly decided that artistic media (games, films, etc) do not meet the requirements.
You can’t give money to the government via entertainment.
So sad. Because pfft, what did culture ever bring to a country? Sighhhh… :'(
Culture.
Or education.
Or healthcare.
Or science…
Which is really important for Australia as we don’t really have any culture.
That’s a dreadful thing to say about the country that gave the world “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! OI! Oi!”
That’s not really a culture thing. That’s a bunch of drunks wanting an excuse to make more noise.
That’s not even ours. We appropriated it from the British “Oggy Oggy Oggy!”
They keep blowing our tax money on the car industry when it’s clearly not sustainable. I’d rather invest a bit more in arts/culture.
They also cut $43.5 million over four years from ABC and SBS. But instead pump more into an industry that doesn’t belong in a country of 20 million people.
No they don’t.
It was Labor who were attempting to ‘save’ the car industry with massive cash hand-outs, not the Coalition.
Does this mean the games industry will now have to stand on its own two feet? THE HORROR! The funding was just blind money and no accountability. Do taxpayers even know where the money’s going, what it’s making, what the goal is, what the outcome is?
Tax breaks for studios with 10+ employees. Help studios and developers help themselves. A “fund” was never the answer when accountability levels were so low.
Is a $155m fund for our shitty car industry any better? Shouldn’t behemoth car makers like Toyota and GM ‘help themselves’?
http://minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/macfarlane/media-releases/155-million-growth-fund-drive-states-future-growth
EDIT: Minus $30m for infrastructure.
That $155m isn’t going to support our shitty car industry. It’s going to try and create new jobs in other (hopefully less shitty) industries for the thousands of people who are going to be losing their jobs in our shitty car industry because our shitty car industry is shutting down over the next 3 years or so.
Uh did you read your link? That’s $150M to help restructure manufacturing in SA into non – automotive industries due to car manufacturers closing down. This is because the Aus government refused to pay $500M in stimulus. I’m not sure what you’re getting upset about.
Yeah I did, I was just fired up at the history we have with propping up the industry in general. You’re right though, this particular thing was around skilling them to work elsewhere.
Well they are ‘helping themselves’ to our money!
I guess they’ll be gone in a few years but I shudder to think what will be left for all those manufacturing workers.
That’s who the money is for, not the car industry. The money is to generate non – automotive manufacturing and training and qualifications for the workers.
Yep. Just like the SAFC funding in SA. Welfare money for studios who dont have to actually produce anything.
Well I guess my diploma in interactive games that I’m currently studying will go to waste. They barely even gave the games fund a chance, I know a few studios who were planning on using this to get themselves up and running and to publish their games. I guess that won’t be happening nowm
Oh don’t be like that- there’ll be plenty of need for poker machines in Abbotts new australia full of petty criminals, drug dealers, prostitutes and strippers,miners and road gangs , a country abounding with casinos and chinese land developments.
enjoy
what i don’t get is the government is making so many cuts… but what are they actually INVESTING in? even what used to be some of our biggest industries are going downhill; but we aren’t investing in any new industries.
ive really grown to hate australian politics…
Fighter jets, mostly, it seems.
More naval vessels.
You know how Abbott likes to “Stop the Boats”.
Those ebil gamez *shakes fist*
oooooh video game industry… I thought he was talking about something else from the gesture he was making,,,
And grossly over-exaggerating, I’d wager.
Definitely! And he looks so damn smug too…..
This week has being a long string of “Fuckn abbot”s heard across the world.
Man, I knew Abbott was gonna screw Australia over. I totally called it! Or at least I would have called it, but unfortunately I now cannot afford a phone line.
because it’s abbott’s fault that he has inherited a massive debt due to the previous government and now has to try and fix it? I hate them both but it’s not his fault Rudd was an incompetent buffoon.
Fair point. I would have preferred Ruddy as PM but either way shit was going down.
So they cut Renewable Energy in Australia and Allowed Dumping in Great Barrier Reef, Now this… WTF is happening where does all the cutting and income go?
Cutting the mining and carbon tax. Just think about those poor little mining companies, all they ever do is try to make the world a better place… and all they ask for is that you work until your 70, pay ridiculous premiums on your healthcare and education, and put up with the slowest internet and public transport in the first world.
First world? My entire age-group is about to go completely without. <.<
Need experience to get job. Need job to get experience. Need six months to get Newstart.
That’s why you get any and all experience while studying. Serious answer, and is the only solution to put yourself in front of everyone else.
In a race to the work force, I’ll win purely because I finish the work I need to finish, with or without payment, generally without complaint.
I’m willing to do extra hours if they’re willing to give me the hours I need to survive. Employers love that shit. Baring in mind, this is only counted towards physical labour. I’ve never had a desk job.
And nothing of value was lost. Seriously, just look at some of what was funded with this “innovative” fund last year:
Defiant – $650,000
Tantalus – $700,000
Torus – $700,000
Twiitch – $900,000
Wicked Witch – $850,000
That’s over $3.5 million down the drain. And these were not the companies making the next Antichamber or anything innovative.
They’re all just “old-boys club” studios that just make contract-work drivel, employing students for minimum wage in what is basically a game development sweatshop.
Most useful post in the thread – if people are going to complain about the cutting of the funding then it would worthwhile looking at what it has actually achieved to date.
I don’t know about the others but Defiant are good guys who can make games- a couple of them made Ski Safari- which didn’t do badly- and they employ good guys in the brisbane area (not me) – I don’t believe they sit around smoking cuban cigars like certain treasurers.
So was there anything about saving $61Million a month that is currently spent on keeping 2500 asylum seekers off our shores? Yes, that’s $24,400 per person, per month. Wouldn’t mind owning Transfield and writing Commissions of Audit and being Abbot’s mate these days. Wonder where the $11Billion in infrastructure will go?
A consequence of Labors 6 years of waste.
Oh right then… let’s talk about waste shall we?
10 million per year to fund a fledgeling industry. That’s NOTHING.
BUT… this Government just pledged NINETY MILLION to find the MH370 missing plane. NINETY MILLION to find a plane, that isn’t even ours, at the bottom of an ocean somewhere.
Why the goddamn hell are we even trying to find it? It’s not even our goddamn plane. You want ‘a consequence of X years of waste’? How about 9 years of funding down the shitter because Dickhead Abbott and Dancin’ Joe Hockey wanted to look for another countries screwup… It’s sad people went missing and died, there is no doubt, but at this point, we should give up. What is the point.
My favourite part was the removing of 80 BILLION of state funding, forcing them to ask for an increased GST. Just so they can say “well, we didn’t bring it up, the states did”.
Woah what!!! Last I heard they were pledging $60M a few weeks back and that was ridiculous enough *googles* OH COME ON!!! that’s bloody ridiculous I agree It’s not our plane why are we putting so much into finding it there were only like 4 Australians even on it anyway.
Indonesia and Australia don’t have a good relationship. Australia wants a good relationship but the Indonesian Government are always looking for a reason to become upset at Australia. Anyone remember the response when the Australian spies were found.
They weren’t very good spies. I mean, they were found after all.
Also I didn’t want what I said to be misconstrued as anti-Indonesian but the reaction the Indonesian Government made was uncalled for especially because of all the Foreign Aid we have given (yes I am aware it has been reduced this budget).
Firstly, it is $60M. $28M has been put towards the defence force for their part. Secondly, this is something that has been budgeted for and includes backdating for expenses already incurred and is spread over a 2 year span. Thirdly, why are we budgeting for it? Australia has responsibility for SAR actions within our Search and Rescue Region. This is specified in our international aviation agreement with ICAO. If a QANTAS plane crashed in Malaysia, they would have to do the exact same thing. Fourthly do you really think that Australia is the only country putting money into this search effort? This is estimated to cost more than $100M (some are saying $200M), Australia is just budgeting for the worst case scenario and setting aside $60M for their own efforts. I guess all of this doesn’t amount to an exciting headline like “Libs spending $90M on plane crash”.
Our government actually makes me feel sick to my stomach.. I get physically sick and anxious whenever I hear announcements like the budget last night.. Oh Joe Hockey is freezing his $300K+ salary for one year – whoopdedoo mate.
But realistically, we need to slash arts, science and health budgets, and cripple our low income earners even more than they already are, but we definitely need to pour billions into buying fighter jets and building more sports stadiums.
I feel like Abbot came out dressed as darth vadar, people still voted him in and now they are like “wtf.. he’s a bad guy?”
It wasn’t a matter of voting for Darth Vader and then acting surprised he was evil, I think for most people voting has devolved into picking the lesser of two evils.
How is this a lesser of two evils? I mean I know what you are saying, but all this looking out for big business and trampling the common man seems crazy to me.. inventing deficits to justify a horrible budget, breaking pretty much every promise made… but you know he said he would stop the boats, it’s like australians are that racist they will put up with being told to squeal like a piggy just so there’s not a few extra hundred brown people in the country each year.
I hear you, it’s frustrating and it’s completely ludicrous the degree of transparency these parties have when they run for election. It’s reached a point where you might as well vote for the person with the better hairstyle given how much you can find out before an election. But who can hold them accountable? I mean what recourse does your average citizen have?
I suggest reading and thinking for yourself and you’ll likely get over your anxiety issues.
I don’t think that I can avoid anxiety over something that will cause my family and I more financial hardship… $7 for a doctor and $5 extra for medicine (for example) might not sound like much, but when you are the sole income earner for a family with sick children and a parent in law – who will both be affected negatively by benefit cuts – this stuff can add up.
However.. where would you suggest that I “Read for myself”? Anything I read has been written by someone else.. most likely with some sort of agenda.. so I don’t understand how that will help? I think to myself when I hear statements about how wind farms are unwanted and how they will “use up all of the earths wind” (this was a real quote by a politician on talkback) that I don’t understand how people with any common sense could follow these people..
This decision really goes against the Government’s “We’re going to help big, medium, small businesses get stronger” song when they’re literally shutting the door on the faces of students and professionals who need the assistance to get their garage studio off the ground. Go figure though when they’ve been breaking all their promises.
Australia is a dying interactive games industry, over the past 7 years we’ve lost well known studios like Auran, Pandemic, THQ, Irrational and Bondi. We have a smaller presence in the worldwide community than ever before. Salvaging the 10 million is not going to help the deficit or make new jobs in any way shape or form if we can’t support new startup game studios.
I guess the message is if you’re a student studying interactive entertainment, start looking overseas if you haven’t already joined a garage group and are producing something in between your studies. It’s a sad turn of events when the government isn’t interested in its entertainment industry.
Is anyone really even surprised any-more? A government by extension needs to look out for the well-being of the people it governs, however in this day and age our governments serve the corporations that provide them with the most funding. Obviously this is best reflected in new legislations, budgets and economical policy.
And to all the people blaming Labour or the Coalition, if you look at the general picture it’s easy to see that neither of these parties really have public interest at heart. I honestly can’t remember the last time I looked to our political leaders and thought to myself I trust that person to lead the country.
That said I think the American have it worse so I guess there’s a bright side?
Not surprising, and doesn’t matter
You had to have done two games before applying for it
If you had the funds to create two games, and if they were of moderate quality, then you should be able to secure funding without gov help through loans or kickstarter or whatever
The hard part is getting that first game or two off the ground, and the gov was never going to help you there anyway. How many indie studios were created with this fund?