Dan Golding, Swinburne University of Technology; Brendan Keogh, Queensland University of Technology, and Taylor Hardwick, Queensland University of Technology
Our new Music and Games 2023 Benchmark aims to establish the scope and scale of Australia’s game music sector.
Video games are part of a multibillion-dollar industry in which lucrative employment opportunities abound.
SDI Productions via Getty Images
Some games developed in South Australia will now be able to access a rebate of 10% of production costs. It’s helpful but more is needed for Australia’s game industry to thrive.
The Counter Strike Global Offensive cyber sport event in St Petersburg, Russia, in October, 2017.
Shutterstock/RomanKosolapov
Untitled Goose Game is a global phenomenon out of an indie games house in Melbourne. Its success shows us where a little investment in games can lead.
Fortnite player Bugha, in action during the final of the Solo competition at the 2019 Fortnite World Cup at Flushing Meadows in New York, July 2019.
EPA-EFE/Jason Szenes
Esports is huge business, attracting millions of players and huge tournament prizes. But investors are worried about the level of hype in the industry.
eSports, which includes online multiplayer games like PUGB, is an industry forecast to reach nearly US$1 billion in revenue by 2019.
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PlayerUnknown’s Battleground - a multiplayer, fight-to-the-death video game - was the most downloaded game for the first quarter of 2018. It feels like an immersive experience of today’s nightmares.
Australia’s videogame industry has called for an end to the government’s silence around funding. And with local games competing on the world stage, it’s time for the cultural medium to be recognised alongside TV and film.
In ‘Big Huggin,’ players control the action by giving affection to a teddy bear controller.
Game by Lindsay Grace; Photo by Stacey Stormes
Lindsay Grace, American University School of Communication
Readers read, viewers watch and players do. That level of engagement gives games real power to influence people both within and outside the play itself.
People want video games and interactive experiences that help them explore deep and meaningful themes, such as creating family, valuing diversity and living responsibly.
With the boundaries between film and game eroding, why are more people not exploiting the potential for cross-media creations?
Escape From Woomera is renowned as one of the forebears of “serious games” – what chance would it stand under new government funding guidelines?
By Escape from Woomera development team, via Wikimedia Commons
This exclusion of games from artistic funding in this year’s budget follows the cancellation of the Interactive Media Fund in last year’s budget. Where to now for the Australian videogame industry?
Games appear in galleries, does that make them art?
blakespot
The UK’s video games industry body Tiga has called for the products to be treated like other creative industries such as television or film, rather than mere “software”. There is a good argument for this…
Kjellberg argues his low-budget method is a ‘winning concept’.
YouTube.com
Does the name Felix Kjellberg sound familiar? How about PewDiePie? … Still nothing? Clearly you’re not one of the 31 million subscribers to YouTube’s most successful channel, PewDiePie, starring 24-year-old…