Film Industry to Games Industry; “Stop whinging”

By Mike Bantick
Monday, 08 September 2008 17:18

Opinion and Analysis

In a little ‘creative differences’ war of words, Australian film industry insiders are none to impressed with the calls from local game developers for parity of support from the government.  Amalgamate or die they say.

The Australian games development scene is a strong one.  Out of it we see high profile titles such as the Total War series and BioShock amongst many others.

The structure of the local industry is disparate; it is a big country with development studios spread from Brisbane in the north, Canberra, Adelaide and a significant hub in Melbourne down south.

The game development industry is big, given the relative size of the country.  According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) ;” At end June 2007, there were 45 businesses in Australia involved in the provision of digital game development services. These businesses employed over 1,400 people and generated a total income of AU$136.9m which represented an average of AU$3m per business.

During 2006-07 digital game development services businesses recorded an operating profit before tax of AU$8.5m, and an operating profit margin of AU6.2%”

So all looks quite good, but the reality is that it could be so much better.  With a strong Aussie dollar of late, many potential game development contracts have disappeared over seas.

Hence the Game Developers’ Association of Australia (GDAA) call for the federal government to assist the industry with tax rebates similar to those enjoyed by the Australian Film Industry.

Again from the ABS ; “In terms of dollar value, the major recipient of cultural funding by the Australian Government was Broadcasting and film, which received AU$1,168.4m in 2006-07 compared to AU$1,141.3m in 2005-06, an increase of AU$27.1m or 2.4%.”

By happenstance recently, over a few beers, I was talking to an Australian Film insider, and the course of the conversation turned to the GDAA’s push for parity with the film industry.