With every day that ends...
The Australian videogame industry is suffering right now, in a bad way. Though the small, more agile teams and the two juggernauts of iOS games Halfbrick and Firemint are going gangbusters, the larger-scale, higher budget sector has been all but obliterated over the past four or five years. Following this, there is a perceived 'brain drain' (how often we hear that with regard to the Australian workforce...) or an 'exodus' of talent moving overseas, particularly to Canada. Why are the pastures so much greener in the snow-covered gardens of our northern Commonwealth brothers? What has happened to the local industry to cause such a drought? How can we pick up the pieces and carry on?
I've been talking to a lot of people about this, and I have some thoughts.
In response to this week's US Supreme Court ruling in the Brown (Schwarzeneggar) vs. Entertainment Merchants Association case, I've written another editorial for Kotaku AU. As an American living here in Australia, I'm feel I'm in a fairly unique position to use this case as a backdrop for our own discussion of content regulation. There will probably be more discussion of this here in the near future, as a lot of the commentary following my article seems to genuinely miss my point, or rather the point of the discussion.
Full text here at Kotaku.
In response to this week's US Supreme Court ruling in the Brown (Schwarzeneggar) vs. Entertainment Merchants Association case, I've written another editorial for Kotaku AU. As an American living here in Australia, I'm feel I'm in a fairly unique position to use this case as a backdrop for our own discussion of content regulation. There will probably be more discussion of this here in the near future, as a lot of the commentary following my article seems to genuinely miss my point, or rather the point of the discussion.
The Australian Videogame Industry
With every day that ends...
The Australian videogame industry is suffering right now, in a bad way. Though the small, more agile teams and the two juggernauts of iOS games Halfbrick and Firemint are going gangbusters, the larger-scale, higher budget sector has been all but obliterated over the past four or five years. Following this, there is a perceived 'brain drain' (how often we hear that with regard to the Australian workforce...) or an 'exodus' of talent moving overseas, particularly to Canada. Why are the pastures so much greener in the snow-covered gardens of our northern Commonwealth brothers? What has happened to the local industry to cause such a drought? How can we pick up the pieces and carry on?
I've been talking to a lot of people about this, and I have some thoughts.