IGEA-建立一个蓬勃发展的游戏开发产业（英文）-2018.12-28页 (2).pdf

A reminder to government of the value in supporting a thriving games development industry and recommendations for industry supportDecember 2018IGEASuite 145,National Innovation Centre Australian Technology Park 4 Cornwallis St,Eveleigh NSW 2015 igea /The Interactive Games&Entertainment Association(IGEA)is the peak industry association representing the business and public policy interests of Australian and New Zealand companies in the computer and video games industry.Our members publish,market,develop and distribute interactive games,entertainment content and related hardware.Our mission is to create an environment that drives sustainable growth for the interactive games and entertainment industry.About IGEABuilding a Thriving Interactive Games Development Industry in Australia1About IGEA IFCSummary 2Table of policy recommendations 3Why Australia needs an interactive games industry 41.Game development is an innovative and future-looking creative industry 42.Game development will help build a modern and talented Australian workforce 53.Games are a valuable,IP-driven and weightless export with high global demand 74.We have entered an era of serious games and their uses have limitless potential 85.The power of games for digital inclusion and its cultural dividend for Australia 10Blueprint for fostering a strong Australian game development industry 121.Provide a$40 million fund for game development 122.Create a 30 per cent refundable tax offset for game development 143.Provide strategic support for cultural,educational and serious games 164.Additional funding and policy support to foster a game development industry 16The fiscal and economic case for supporting game development 181.The cost of supporting game development is modest and sustainable 182.Games funding is recoupable,while a tax offset will lead to increased tax receipts 193.Financial incentives will provide a lightning rod for foreign investment 194.The benefits of investment and growth will more than justify support costs 215.Savings are available to offset the cost of funding game development 22Game development enjoys broad political and stakeholder support 231.There is bi-partisan and crossbench support for games 232.The screen industry and the Australian public support games 24 CONTENTSBuilding a Thriving Interactive Games Development Industry in Australia2Game development is an industry of the future that will provide highly skilled employees,high paying jobs and the creation of digital exports in one of the fastest growing creative,entertainment and technology sectors in the global economy.There is a need for Australia to modernise and diversify its economy for the 21st century and games can help lead this digital evolution.Australias game development industry is a sleeping giant and with the right support it can employ thousands of people and add hundreds of millions of dollars to Australias GDP.In particular,it can help to build a whole new generation of Australians with vital digital skills.This is not a hypothetical scenario,with Canada and the United Kingdom providing proven and concrete examples of what can be achieved.Games provide wonderful entertainment but also so much more.Serious games are finding innovative uses in sectors including health,education,defence and business.Games are also vital to Australian culture and support digital and social inclusion.Of Australias various types of screen content,games arguably provide the most relevant and effective form of cultural export and can help the world and particularly the countries within our region to better understand Australia and its people.While both federal and state and territory governments have a role to play to help build a thriving game development industry in Australia,this paper focuses on mapping out the effective and sustainable investment and support that is needed at the federal level.The most vital financial incentives that are needed from the Australian Government are a$40 million Australian Interactive Games Fund based on the fund that previously existed in 2013,and a 30 per cent refundable tax offset for game development modelled off the successful tax offset for Australias post-production,visual and digital effects industry.In addition to a new fund and tax offset,other targeted funding and support measures are also outlined in this paper,including support for culturally-significant and serious games,support for co-working spaces and potential re-calibration of Export Market Development Grants and Research&Development tax incentives to better suit game development.These financial incentives and support measures will kick start the rapid growth of our game development sector through the establishment of new game studios in Australia,investment and projects flowing into Australian businesses and a range of joint ventures.The costs of government support for a game development sector will easily be recouped through economic growth and increased tax receipts,particularly given the export-driven global market for games.The social and cultural benefits of Australian-made games and the increased opportunities for training and education of students and young graduates that would result from industry support will be further returns on the governments investment.Finally,these industry support measures can be introduced via a budget-neutral package funded through savings that can be found by streamlining and modernising the governments existing framework of financial incentives for the broader screen industry.SUMMARYSummaryBuilding a Thriving Interactive Games Development Industry in Australia3Reinstate the Australian Interactive Games Fund and provide support of$40 million over four years Policy recommendation Provide a 30 per cent refundable tax offset for video game developmentProvide strategic funding and support for cultural,educational and serious gamesProvide additional funding and support for game developers,such as to:Provide assistance for shared working spaces Establish a regional innovation hub Review taxation of crowd-sourced funding Review Export Market Development Grants Review Research&Development tax incentivesSeed funding to help game development businesses to expand,encourage new businesses and multiply projects,private investment,employment and expenditureWhat it will achieve In addition to the benefits above,it will draw global game developers to work or base in Australia,potentially setting up studios with hundreds of jobs each and bringing over projects worth tens of millions in expenditure,if not moreTargeted funding to encourage the development of games with culturally-significant Australian content,games with a high educational focus and games with a serious focus,an emerging and high potential sector of the industryTargeted support as recommended or discussed by various Parliamentary inquiries to help game developers to break into the industry and take advantage of existing industry support mechanisms Table of policy recommendationsTABLE OF POLICY RECOMMENDATIONSBuilding a Thriving Interactive Games Development Industry in Australia4Why Australia needs an interactive games industry1.Game development is an innovative and future-looking creative industryInteractive games have the wonderful ability to tell unique and compelling stories that provide a voice for Australian content creators and can provide a key pillar of a modern,digital and creative Australia.At the same time,games represent the perfect intersection of Australias technology,information and creative industries and if supported,they can drive Australias economic growth,productivity and competitiveness in the 21st century.The interactive games sector is one of the largest and fastest growing entertainment and media industries in the world.Estimated to be worth almost AUD$200 billion globally in 2018,1 games are bigger businesses than films,music and books.By contrast,the Australian game development industry employed around 928 full-time employees and generated just$118.5 million in 2016-7.2 Disappointingly,Australian game developers only capture 0.08 per cent of the global market,but this also means the opportunities for growth are enormous.1 Tom Wijman,Mobile revenues account for more than 50%of the global games market as it reaches$137.9 billion in 2018,Newzoo,30 April 2018,https:/ 2 IGEA,Australian Video Game Development Industry Snapshot 2016-7,17 January 2018,https:/ size of our industry has not reached anywhere near its potential and was outpaced by even the New Zealand game development industry,which generated AUD$131 million in the 12 months to March 2018 and has grown 43 per cent since the preceding year.3 However,it is not too late and with the right support,an Australian game development industry can become a powerhouse of the economy.Twenty years ago,Canada was in a similar position to where we are today with just 1,000 people employed in game development.Aided by government support,it has grown to an industry that employs 21,700 full-time workers and adds AUD$4 billion to its GDP,a growth of 24 per cent since 2015.4 The UK also shows what can be achieved with government investment and now has 2,261 game development companies 62 per cent of which were created this decade employing 13,840 full-time workers.53 NZ Game Developers Association,NZ Games Development Industry,https:/ ESA Canada,Essential facts about the Canadian video game industry,http:/theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ESAC2017_Booklet_13_Digital.pdf,p 35 UKIE,The games industry in numbers,https:/ukie.org.uk/researchWHY AUSTRALIA NEEDS AN INTERACTIVE GAMES INDUSTRYBuilding a Thriving Interactive Games Development Industry in Australia5WHY AUSTRALIA NEEDS AN INTERACTIVE GAMES INDUSTRYA competitor but also a vision for the future:the Canadian game development industryThere are 596 video game studios in Canada,a 21 per cent increase since 2015.Canadas game development industry employs 21,800 workers and is worth CAN$3.7 billion,with 83 per cent of game studios being Canadian-owned and controlled.Canadian game studios are spread around the country with 198 companies in Quebec,171 in Ontario and 152 in British Columbia.2,100 video game projects were completed in Canada in 2017,a 67 per cent increase since 2015.15 per cent of games completed in Canada in 2017 were serious games,while 23 per cent of developers worked on a virtual reality game.ESA Canada,Essential facts about the Canadian video game industry,http:/theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ESAC2017_Booklet_13_Digital.pdf2.Game development will help build a modern and talented Australian workforce A home-grown game development industry will nurture Australias next generation of entrepreneurial,skilled and knowledge-based workers.The businesses and jobs that will be created through games can literally be located anywhere in the country and can support regional Australia.For example,the Australian game Crossy Road by Hipster Whale,which has been downloaded over 100 million times around the world and is an unbridled success story,was developed in the town of Creswick north of Ballarat.The TAFE NSW Digital Lab,which is helping to apply digital technologies like those developed in the games industry to education,is based in Armidale.Many of the jobs that will be created will also be high paying,with the average salary of a full-time worker in Canadas game development industry currently paying AUD$85,000.66 ESA Canada,p 7Building a Thriving Interactive Games Development Industry in Australia6Thriving game development businesses will also fuel other parts of the interactive games industry,including game publishing,hardware and accessories,exhibitions and esports,education,marketing and both online and bricks and mortar retail.For example,Canada estimates that its 21,700-strong game development sector supports an additional 18,900 jobs across the broader economy.7 Esports in particular provides a wonderful opportunity to boost Australian tourism and we are already seeing stadium owners and cinemas developing partnerships with esports leagues and teams to fill venues around Australia.The benefits of a successful game development industry will flow to many other parts of Australias broader economy by providing diverse skills that are uniquely transferrable to other sectors,from IT and software expertise to digital design and media production skills.Game engines like Unity and Unreal Engine are increasingly being used in many non-game fields and skilled practitioners of those engines are becoming some of the most highly-sought workers across 7 ESA Canada,p 5-6 the entire IT sector globally.Given that Australias film and TV production sectors have been static or have declined over the past decade,8 interactive games which are increasingly narrative-driven can fill the void and provide work for writers,directors,actors,artists,composers,editors and animators among many others.Finally,supporting our game development industry means that Australia will be able to reverse the brain drain that has been leading to a loss of our skilled game developers,not to mention the thousands of game development and design graduates Australia is producing each year.Our talent is currently needing to move overseas to find work,taking with them not only their skills,experience and creative ideas,but also their taxable incomes.If we dont support our industry,we will continue to lose an entire generation of talented Australians to grateful studios in the US,Europe,the UK and Canada.8 Screen Producers Australia,Submission to the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts Inquiry into Factors Contributing to the Growth and Sustainability of the Australian Film and Television Industry,https:/www.aph.gov.au/DocumentStore.ashx?id=05ee381e-fa9e-4cc1-b00e-daa388f33d0d&subId=509714,p.18The budding next generation of Australian game developersYoung Australians are passionate about developing games and are making it happen,with around 5,000 students enrolled in game-related courses each year.Australia has some of the best games courses in the world,from the diverse range of courses taught by the Academy of Interactive Entertainment to university courses like RMITs Bachelor of Design(Games),UTSs Bachelor of Science in Games Development and Torrens Universitys Bachelor of Creative Technologies(Game Art).Unfortunately,with an unsupported industry at home there are currently not enough jobs to keep these graduates in Australia,but we are doing a great job feeding studios and economies overseas.WHY AUSTRALIA NEEDS AN INTERACTIVE GAMES INDUSTRYBuilding a Thriving Interactive Games Development Industry in Australia73.Games are a valuable,IP-driven and weightless export with high global demand Games are arguably the perfect export product for Australia.Australian-made games are generally digital,so there are no transportation costs,and the majority of games are built on original intellectual property,meaning tha