In 2014, the Australian Interactive Games Fund was sensationally cut by the Labour government leaving about $10 million of funding that wasn’t passed on to the games industry in Australia.
Earlier this year, the Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training launched an Inquiry into Innovation and Creativity. Today we’ve seen a move of support that could go a long way towards a return for this very important fund.
Terri Butler MP, Deputy Chair of the Inquest has today put forward a recommendation to have the funding re-introduced.
“The Committee recommends that the Australian Government introduce a funding scheme based on the former Australian Interactive Games Fund.”
IGEA’s Legal and Policy Lawyer, Jonny Roses had the below to say about today’s events:
“IGEA would like to thank the House of Representatives Committee for recommending the re-introduction of a Federal Government funding scheme for Australian video game development. IGEA pushed hard for this in both our written submission and when appearing as a witness in front of the Committee at the public hearing. This is a great result for the Australian games industry and hopefully the Government accepts the recommendation, alongside the recommendations made in last year’s Senate report on games development.”
Whilst there’s still some way to go, we’re seeing some much needed funding put back into the Australian games industry. Just last week, Film Victoria revealed that they’d put over $500,000 into game development studios.
