Western Australia’s Cook Government is investing $31.9 million into its screen industry in hopes of attracting more productions to the region, bolstering the state’s economy. Part of that has been earmarked for the WA games industry.
While the bulk of this funding will go to film and television production, $2 million has been carved off for WA games. The funding will keep Screenwest’s vitally important Digital Games and Interactive Fund running for another two years. The DGIF provides funding to WA game developers and immersive tech companies to help them produce their work.
According to its press release, this latest investment is designed to kick-start the government’s ten-year plan. It’s called, plainly enough, the WA Screen Industry Strategy. This strategy, the Cook Government hopes, will show Western Australians a clear roadmap for how the state’s screen industry will be nurtured, grown and directed over the next decade. In an ideal world, it will be able to make good on that promise (unless its opposition wins power back and dismantles the whole thing, which, as we know, has happened before).
The move makes WA the latest state in the nation to push for greater game development funding, competing with the likes of South Australia and Queensland to become the nation’s next big development hub. New South Wales’ Minns government has made a few small moves in a similar direction, but any dev battling away in Sydney will tell you they could be doing a lot more.
A total of 43 state-funded projects across film, TV, games, and post-production kicked off in WA in 2023. In 2024, it wants to see more.
You can read the full press release here.
Image: iStock, gorodenkoff
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