You’d think such a huge industry would get Government support for local development, hey?
The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association just released 2017’s figures on video game consumption in Australia – $3.23 billion, holy wow. That’s up nine per cent from 2016. So not only is it a huge market, it’s growing.
Of that figure, $1.176 billion came from retail sales (hello, keeping businesses open) and $2 billion from online digital sales (an easy market for smaller developers to access). $1 billion in revenue came from mobile game sales.
We have a lot to thank Nintendo for, as well, with console sales up 11 per cent on the back of both the Switch and the re-release of classic consoles.
Sign ups for PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live services also went up by 14 per cent in 2017.
“Despite the huge amount of entertainment options available to Australians, the appetite for games shows no signs of waning, evidenced by growth across the entire industry,” said Ron Curry, CEO of IGEA.
“In 2017, we saw gamers embrace new and updated consoles. At the same time, there was lots of love shown and nostalgia for old favourites – both hardware and games. Australians enjoy buying products in-store, where they can seek out hands-on experiences and advice from retail staff, and similarly they are very comfortable downloading full games and additional content.”
Now, how do we get the Government to pay attention?
[IGEA]