COULD YOUR CHILD BE AUSTRALIA’S NEXT BEST GAME DEVELOPER? Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen how video games have a positive effect on mental health, enabling families and friends to remain connected even while physically apart. In fact, according to research from the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association, video games are now more popular than free to air TV in Australia. With so many of us picking up the controls, it’s only natural that parents have started to imagine gaming as the perfect future career for their children. Move over architecture, medical, or veterinary school, gaming might be the new answer to ‘what do you want to be when you’re older?’ 38
It’s easy to see why. The future of the gaming industry is looking bright, with global gaming revenue worth more than the film and music industries combined. In Australia, the video game development industry doubled its revenue to $226 million since 2016, according to results from the fifth annual Australian Game Development Survey (AGDS) 2021. The survey also revealed that the industry expects further growth locally, contributing to the growth of the global market, which was worth $AU240 billion in 2020. On top of all that, the federal government is jumping on the trend with the announcement of a Digital Games Tax Offset, a scheme that grants gaming businesses earning more than $500,000 a 30 per cent tax offset.
