IGEA’s submission to the Australian and Children’s Screen Content Review

As part of IGEA’s ongoing efforts to support and advocate for the Australian video games development industry, we have lodged a submission to the Department of Communication and the Arts’ recent Australian and Children’s Screen Content Review, which you can read here.

The objective of this review was to provide policy options to Government on the most effective support mechanisms for the Australian screen production sector. While the review initially did not include video games, IGEA’s lobbying managed to convince the Government to change this.

This submission is IGEA’s most comprehensive piece of work in the video game development space. We worked with our members, Australian games developers and other stakeholders, to craft an extensive submission that, among other things, urges the Government to support the Australian games development industry in the following ways:

• Introduce a funding scheme for games development based on the axed Australian Interactive Games Fund
• Implement a refundable tax offset for Australian expenditure in developing games
• Financially contribute towards co-working spaces for games development
• Encourage the uptake of ‘serious games’ in health care, education and other sectors

IGEA believes now is the time for Australia’s game developers to receive an appropriate level of Federal Government support, just like with any other screen or creative sector. And with the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science recently announcing its own “Digital Economy” review, IGEA looks forward to continuing this important advocacy work.