Senate Committee Completes Inquiry into Future of Video Game Development Industry

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons (Author: Jpp)


Written by: Mark Goninon

The Australian Senate's Environment and Communications References Committee has just completed its final report on the "Future of Australia's video game development industry" which was originally conceived on the 22nd June last year.

I made my submission in around September and offered my two cents - crazily enough, I managed to get referenced in the final report! Check it out!



Anyway, thanks to the many submissions and research, the report offers 8 recommendations to the Senate and Government:

  1. A funding scheme based on the former Australian Interactive Games Fund
  2. A refundable tax offset for Australian expenditure in the development of game titles
  3. Co-funding of shared game development workspaces with states and also the establishment of regional innovation hubs
  4. The encouragement of "serious game" development for the health care, education and other sectors
  5. That perhaps there should be temporary tax relief on crowd-funded game projects
  6. Recommends the government develop a discussion paper and consult on the utility of the Export Market Development Grants scheme for businesses that operate in a digital economy
  7. That any measures to help the industry also ensures a diverse workforce and fair employment conditions
  8. 21st century broadband infrastructure

It will be interesting to see if the government actually listens to any of these recommendations and actually believes its own rhetoric: if they truly believe in innovation, they should invest in video game development.

[ LINK: Future of Australia's video game development industry - Parliamentary Business Homepage ]

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