MCV PACIFIC WEEKLY
 
 
 
 
 
Thursday March 29, 2018
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Sumerset
 
 
 
 
FANDOM Launches Australian Edition
 

Leading global entertainment media brand FANDOM, announces the launch of an Australian edition of its website, available now at fandom.com.au. MORE

 
 
 
 
 
The Lizzies 2018
 

David Milner took home Best Gaming Journalist with IGN  grabbing Best Gaming Coverage at the ACS IT Journalism Awards. MORE

 
 
 
 
 
Stake your claim at PAX Rising
 

ReedPOP have announced booths within PAX Rising are now available for purchase. MORE

 
 
 
 
 
Event applications for MIGW open
 

MIGW is looking to fill its roster of conferences, events, exhibitions and more this year during its wee-klong celebration of video games. MORE

 
 
 
 
 
Crossing paths at this year’s Freeplay Festival
 

Australia’s largest independent games festival returns May 22nd announcing this year’s theme, Intersections. MORE

 
 
 
 
 
High School League of Legends Australia & New Zealand
 

The New Zealand League of Legends esports competition is opening its door to ACT, NSW and QLD High Schools, MORE

 
 
 
 
 
Throwdown Esports celebrates record breaking weekend
 

Leading esports brand and service provider Throwdown Esports sees 200,000 viewers on a single broadcast last weekend, the highest viewership the company have achieved. MORE

 
 
 
 
 
Adelaide Football Club to kick start High School Esports
 

The competition will be an ANZ Championship, playing League of Legends, the tournament is should attract thousands of young gamers, with any high school able to participate. MORE

 
 
 
 
 
Youth focused online talent training course, Gen Z, to launch
 

Brainchild of Jacqueline Garrett , mother of Orange Ocelot, the structured training course aims to help support the growth of other gaming streamers aged 8-14 globally. MORE

 
 
 
 
 
Bajo Hits 2 Million views on Twitch
 

Popular streamer and industry veteran, Steven ‘Bajo’ O’Donnell has hit 2 Million total views on his Twitch.tv channel. MORE

 
 
 
ICYMI
 
The MCV Pacific Awards return for a sixth year
 

The MCV Pacific Awards will return to Sydney's the Ivy on Thursday, May 31. 

 

Ticket sales have opened  with an ‘Early Bird’ ticket price of $335 + GST per head or $2,995 + GST for a table of ten will be offered up until May 1st.

 

Following May 1st tickets will be $365 + GST per head or $3,285 + GST for a table of ten.

 

Since the announcement of the event mid last week IGEA, Red Bull and Steelbook have all confirmed their support of the event. 

The event is already over 50% sold out. You can download the ticket form here. 

 
ICYMI
 
Razer and Trade Media extend partnership
 

Razer is the official hardware provider to Trade Media, continuing last year’s partnership.

 

The new Trade Media office has now been fitted out with the latest Razer laptops, mechanical keyboards, mice and the all new Core V.2.

 
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SEE THE FULL WEEK 12 CHARTS

 
Driving our visual revolution By Joab Gilroy
 
 

A few weeks ago I found myself sitting at a corner table in a Sydney café, waxing lyrically about the state of the Australian Games Industry, fighting back the urge to gush over Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) President and CEO Jayson Hilchie. Here I was, sitting with one of the most senior representatives of video games in the world, discovering that many of my long-held views mirrored many of his.

 

Hilchie was in Australia thanks to the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA), leveraging their global relations, a relationship that was forged with ESAC over the past five or so years. Jayson’s whirlwind tour had seen him spending the week speaking with media, mediating the IGEA 2018 strategic review, leading a shadow Federal Government roundtable and a host of other engagements.

 

Over the past 20-years Canada has built their games development industry into a global powerhouse. It supports companies of all sizes, with almost 22,000 full time employees who contribute 3.7-billion to the country’s GDP.

 

It will come as no surprise that Jayson’s visit came off the back of the long-awaited, and I must say, dismal response by the Federal Government to the Environmental and Communications References Committee report, Game On: more than playing around. He wasn’t in Australia to dictate how the government should approach the industry, more so tell a story of what has not only worked,  but excelled in Canada, a country like Australia, that features a relatively modest population, spread out over a very large land mass, with tradition of a GDP built off the back of a boom and bust prone resources industry.

 
 
 

I’m the first to admit, that when it comes to the health of the industry and support for local developers, I tend to let my passion sometimes get the best of me. In the last two years, I have gone further down the rabbit hole, that is the thinking; we shouldn’t be seeking games funding from the arts and should be focusing other portfolios such as Trade and Investment. Hey, this way we aren’t having to convince a room full of, colloquially, ‘middle-aged white men’ that games are, as we all know, art. A P&L would be enough to prove we were worthy of their support. Stepping back to my gushing, Jayson shared the view that there was room for this thinking, but their industry had in fact seen great benefit from balance.

 

For too long I had believed that funding for the industry was reliant on the acceptance of telling stories, including the Australian one, through the medium of games and was intrinsically tied to the creation of jobs in the sector. What Canada’s industry teaches us, is again a balance of the two.

 

In its total, 83% of Canadian studios are locally owned, but only account for 14% of total employees within the industry,  meaning 86% of developers and staff work at the multi-national studios. So, the question then becomes are we as an industry looking to create jobs, where policies like tax incentives thrive, or are we looking to tell the Australian story? This is where the creation of an interactive fund shines. The answer, at least for me, is once again balance.

 

If you have ever heard Mighty Kingdom’s Founder and Director, Phillip Mayes speak of his visions for the industry, the Canadian success story is similar to his goals for the Australia – an active and robust industry that sees the promotion and cultivation of a mix of large development studios and independent developers. It creates a knowledge pool that drives the industry forward and flows downwards to develop the next generation of talent.

 

Canada has seen the successful operation of both provincial (state) based tax incentives and a federally supported media fund, of which, the latter is only made available to Canadian owned companies and is regularly accessed, to great success, by local independent studios.

 

The ESAC has also spent the past six years campaigning the Federal Government to fast track the immigration process, allowing companies to now access required international talent inside of 4-weeks, feeding that games machine that has outgrown the available local talent and again adding to the knowledge pool.

 

As we as an industry continue to battle for government recognition and policy inclusion, for mind, the answer isn’t a singular pronged one, it is one of, say it with me – balance. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, Canada has already put in many of the hard yards, our question should be – what can we learn from it?

 
 
 
 
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