Lockdown has proved to be a silver lining for the Australian video game industry, according to a 9News report saying locally produced content is booming and jobs are stable.
Aussie made video games brought in about $185 million last year, with a 29 per cent revenue increase over 2019.
Industry experts have suggested it could become a billion dollar industry over the next decade.
“If you had a product in the market it (2020) was a great year,” Ron Curry, CEO of the Interactive Games Entertainment Association (IGEA), told 9News.
“We definitely had an increase in people playing games, which moves to an increase in people making games.”
Mr Curry says the coronavirus lockdown gaming trend drove developers to push their product to market as quickly as possible.
“People were searching out new things to play by moving away from just the standard.”
This week Film Victoria distributed $550,000 worth of grants to 10 Victorian gaming projects.
Minister for Creative Industries, Danny Pearson, said the global games market is booming.
“This latest investment will help games businesses scale up and support more local creators,” Mr Pearson said in a statement.
A survey conducted by IGEA found that 87 per cent of Australia’s gaming revenue over the last year was generated overseas, the majority of games created for PC and mobile.
Right now there’s over 1200 full-time employees within Australia’s gaming development industry.
Of the studios producing games, 76 per cent reported stable revenue and more than half are confident they’ll be able to keep producing games for years to come.
Australia’s video game industry has the potential to reach a billion dollars, but IGEA say state and federal government support is crucial.