Monday, 10 May 2021, 10:35 am
Australia’s introduction of a 30 to 40% tax incentive
for video games will halt the growth of New Zealand’s
video games sector, which has been the fastest growing part
of our screen industry in recent years, says New Zealand
Game Developers Association chairperson Chelsea
Rapp.
“Our interactive industry can’t access New
Zealand’s own screen incentives, which is bad enough, but
now with this competition from Australia, we’ll see a
clear brain drain with investment following,” says
Rapp.
“While New Zealand has an incredibly talented
and globally successful games industry, we can’t compete
when you could get a 40% discount to relocate to Australia.
Industry body warns of brain drain if New Zealand doesn’t follow suit.
The Australian government’s recently announced 30% tax offset for game developers could lead to a brain drain if not matched by New Zealand, an industry body has warned.
Australia’s next federal budget will include a 30% refundable tax offset for video game development as part of the government’s National Digital Economy Package.
Australia’s Interactive Games and Entertainment Association said the break would spur the creation of new Australian game development studios, accelerate the growth of existing Australian studios, and attract blockbuster game studios to Australia, creating jobs along the way.
Filed to:icarus
Image: TVNZ1 Breakfast
To sign up for our daily newsletter covering the latest news, features and reviews, head HERE. For a running feed of all our stories, follow us on Twitter HERE. Or you can bookmark the Kotaku Australia homepage to visit whenever you need a news fix.
Amidst the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Valve co-founder and internet gaming dad Gabe Newell got stuck in New Zealand. The world went into lockdown, and instead of heading home to Seattle to cope with the United States’ brand of public health management, Newell stayed down under. That resulted in a happy affair with the country throughout all of 2020, so much so that Valve employees started asking about potentially moving to New Zealand permanently. But in a chat with Rocketwerkz co-founder Dean Hall, it’s become apparent that Valve’s good intentions haven’t quite evolved into action.
Image: Rocketwerkz
To sign up for our daily newsletter covering the latest news, features and reviews, head HERE. For a running feed of all our stories, follow us on Twitter HERE. Or you can bookmark the Kotaku Australia homepage to visit whenever you need a news fix.
There’s an common narrative among gaming forums and fans that says the success of one game is often detrimental to the hopes of another. In 2021, that massive hit is
Valheim, the Viking-themed survival simulator that abandons many of the orthoxodies around survival games. So it’s normal for people to look at
High score for New Zealand s thriving gaming sector 18 Dec 2020
It’s far from game over for New Zealand’s game development industry - in fact, it’s something of a high score as the sector’s exports reached $323.9 million in the year to April 2020 - a 59% increase from 2019 and the highest ever exports on record.
The New Zealand Game Developers Association released the statistics in its annual New Zealand Game Developers Industry Survey of 42 interactive, gaming, virtual reality, augmented reality and education tech companies.
96% of the total revenue was generated through digital services sales to consumers via various digital platforms. 5% of revenue also came from royalties, 8% from selling advertising in games and 7% from selling services.