Australia: A Global Leader in Digital Games

Australia is a global leader in digital games.

Australian-made games are rocketing up global sales charts. Our indie developers are partnering with global publishers. Our studios are attracting multimillion-dollar investment. And 85% of Australian game developers create their own IP.

Whether it’s developing award-winning digital games, using virtual reality to train industry or digital twins to manage industrial sites, the possibilities are endless for Australia’s digital games industry.

Are you looking to invest in Australia’s digital games industry? We offer:

Federal and state tax offsets worth up to 45% of development costs
Deep pools of creative and tech talent
Support for 24-hour games development cycles
A track record of critically and commercially successful IP
…and that great Australian lifestyle.

85%

of Australian studios develop their own IP

Source: Level Up: A Guide to the Australian Games Industry 2023

3,000

grads a year

Our higher education colleges graduate 100,000 tech and creative students per year. Around 3,000 have specific games-related qualifications.

Source: Level Up: A Guide to the Australian Games Industry 2023

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Find your home in Australia

Level Up: Our 2023 guide to the digital games industry in Australia.

Read our guide

Creating chart-topping games

Australian studios win international awards.

Witchbeam: Unpacking. It won ‘Game of the Year’ at the 2022 BAFTA Awards.
Modern Storyteller: The Forgotten City. Nominated for the 2022 BAFTA Awards.
Massive Monster: Cult of the Lamb – 2022’s biggest indie hit. It was nominated for three 2023 BAFTA Games Awards including best game.
Drop Bear Bytes: Broken Roads.
Gameloft Brisbane: The Oregon Trail (remake). It topped Apple Arcade in 2021.
mod.io: (modding/UGC platform).
Prideful Sloth: Yonder – The Cloud Catcher Chronicles, Grow – Song of the Evertree.
Mighty Kingdom: Star Trek: Lower Decks. It won the Best Storytelling award at the Pocket Gamer Mobile Game Awards in London in April 2023.

Home to global talent

Our prowess in digital games is driven by deep skills in multiple technologies. Our young developers and experienced studio execs create the perfect blend of commercial, tech and creative talent.

More than 3,000 skilled games students graduate each year in Australia.
Local colleges teach engineering, game design, digital art, 3-D modelling, animation and audio engineering.
Our tech industry is one of the biggest in the southern hemisphere.
A wave of Aussie expats are returning to run studios.
Global Talent visas are now available for top-skilled industry professionals.

Our colleges produce excellent graduates with all the necessary skills to make great games.’

- Joshua Sanderson, Co-founder, Team WIBY (Phantom Abyss).

Fast facts

More than 3,200 Australians are employed across Australia’s digital games ecosystem. More than 2,100 are directly employed in Australian games studios, a 59 per cent year-on-year increase (Source: Level Up: A Guide to the Australian Games Industry 2023).
Games studio income rose 26% in just one year, from 2020/21 to 2021/22 (Source: IGEA 2022).
Two in 3 Australians play digital games (Source: Digital Australia 2022).
Australian games development studios earned A$284.4m in revenue in 2021/22 (Source: IGEA Australian Game Development Survey 2022).
84% of Australian game studio revenue comes from international markets (Source: Level Up: A Guide to the Australian Games Industry 2023).
Australian industry shines when technology and creativity are incorporated. Cultural and creative industries contribute A$122.3 billion a year to Australia’s economy (Source: Australian Government 2022). And the Australian tech sector contributes A$167 billion (Source: Benchmark Report 2023, 2020–21 GDP).

Incentives, grants, and support

Australia’s thriving digital landscape is supported by a range of federal and state incentives that enable businesses to unlock their potential.

Our booming digital games industry is supported by a federal tax offset and state incentives worth up to 45% of eligible development costs.

The Digital Games Tax Offset

Australia’s new Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO) is a game changer. It offers:
- a 30% refundable tax offset.
- available on eligible games with qualifying expenditure of more than A$500,000.
- worth up to A$20 million each year.
- claimable for eligible expenditure up to A$66.7m a year incurred from 1 July 2022.
- can be combined with state-based incentives worth 10–15%.
Screen Australia’s Games: Expansion Pack initiative is open to games with budgets below $500,000. Grants are worth up to A$150,000.

Support from Australian states and territories

Games developers can combine DGTO with grants from Australian states and territories.
- New South Wales: A 10% Digital Games Rebate for qualifying expenditure of at least A$500,000. Early Development and Advanced Development grants of up to A$50,000.
- Queensland: A 15% Digital Games Incentive, now available to game developers spending at least A$250,000 in the state.
- South Australia: A 10% rebate of eligible expenditure over A$250,000.
- Victoria: VicScreen grants of up to 10% of qualifying expenditure for games costing at least A$500,000. Supplementary funding for studios worth A$30,000–A$300,000.

Additional incentives and support

The Research and Development Tax Incentive encourages businesses to invest more in R&D through tax offsets. It is applicable for businesses developing innovative products that aren’t eligible for the DGTO.
Research institutions such as Australian Research Council, CSIRO, Charles Sturt University, and Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments may offer funding and grants for innovative research projects incorporating game development, VR and AR.
The Australian Tax Office’s New Investment Engagement Service gives tailored guidance on tax issues to businesses planning significant new investments in Australia.

Video: Aussie Games Showcase

Our thriving ecosystem

The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) supports the Australian digital games industry, including through the Australian Game Developer Awards and the flagship Games Connect Asia Pacific professional conference in Melbourne.
Screen Australia is the Australian Government agency that supports screen development, production and promotion. Individual states and territories also offer support via their own development agencies: VicScreen, Screen NSW, the South Australian Film Corporation, Screenwest in Western Australia, Screen Queensland, Screen Tasmania and Screen Territory.
Australia offers numerous startup hubs, accelerators and coworking spaces:
- Game Plus workspaces bring together game developers and related tech startups in Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra.
- Screen Queensland operates the SQhub co-working space for screen creatives in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
- ACMI X is a coworking community that houses more than 60 creative practitioners and start-ups in a creative culture of collaboration, innovation and sustainability.
- The QUT Design Lab is a community of designers, engineers, roboticists, creative thinkers, makers, artists, health practitioners and innovators all working to transform ideas into tangible design artefacts, images, spaces, interactions and processes.
- Techstars is an accelerator based at Tech Central Sydney that supports start-ups focused on emerging technologies including creative tech.
- The Australian Institute of Music (AIM) Innovation Hub is home to a thriving community of startups that help musicians and the industry with a wide range of next-generation technologies.

A magnet for investors

Studios based in Australia are creating some of the world’s most popular games, making them a magnet for multimillion-dollar investment.

Global capital is pouring into Australia’s digital games industry. We welcome foreign investment from AAA studios and ambitious startups. With international acclaim, pro-business regulation and a cracking lifestyle, our games eco-system is growing fast.

Sledgehammer Games, Electronic Arts, Keyword Studios, Riot Games and Gameloft are developing AAA games in Australia.
Nacon acquired Big Ant in January 2021, helping to create a new global leader in sports games.
Since 2018, Supercell has made a series of strategic investments in racing game specialist Ultimate Studio.

Success stories

A games developer from Sledgehammer Games edits game characters with two computer screens

Sledgehammer Games - Digital games

Sledgehammer Games’s Aussie offshoot powers ahead

In 2019, US-based Sledgehammer Games chose Melbourne as a first stop in its global expansion program. After just three years, the Melbourne studio helped launch the latest first-person shooter game in the Call of Duty series: Call of Duty®: Vanguard.

Staffing levels in Melbourne now exceed 150. According to Chief Operating Officer, Andy Wilson, rapid growth in Australia is due to amazing talent and a passion for diversity.

‘There’s a freshness within Australia’s game development scene that is appreciated by our international colleagues,’ says Andy Wilson, Sledgehammer Games’ Chief Operating Officer ‘Australian game developers are thirsty for opportunity: they want to create awesome cultures within games.’

Rapid growth in Melbourne

Sledgehammer Games was founded in 2009 and is based in Foster City, California. It is best known for its contribution to the Call of Duty game franchise. Today, the company also has studios in Toronto, Canada and Guilford, UK.

When Sledgehammer first opened in Melbourne in 2019, it operated as a small team of engineers, but growth has been ultra-rapid. Three years later, and the Melbourne studio has grown exponentially and delivers the full gamut of AAA studio services.

‘We have grown into all core functions, including rendering, gameplay, audio and online,’ says Wilson. ‘We have rounded out the content and support side of the business with environment artists, concept artists, lighting artists, VFX artists, UI/UX developers and level designers.’

Talent and diversity

The Melbourne studio is built on talent and diversity, according to Wilson. He says the depth of talent in Australia would be extremely difficult to match elsewhere.

‘Australia is a melting pot of cultures and industries,’ he says. ‘It offers the possibility of finding talent that we could not otherwise access.’

Diversity is a big part of local success.

‘We believe strongly that diversity delivers value and richness,’ says Wilson. ‘We are working with fantastic intern partners that help us attract and engage candidates of varied experience.’

Returning Aussies skill up local studios

Wilson reports that Australian talent is also returning from overseas. This helps accelerate the build-up of local capabilities.

‘The scale of opportunity in the Australian games industry makes it an increasingly attractive choice for key ex-pat talent,’ he says.

‘The sheer number of experienced, talented developers we’ve been able to attract within a short time frame would be very difficult in other markets.’

Grants and incentives

Government support is also a factor. The renaissance in Australia’s games industry is partly due to the increased number of tax breaks and tax offsets available from the Federal Government, and from individual states and territories. This includes arts-funding bodies in Victoria.

‘VicScreen gave us a grant for our work on COD Vanguard,’ says Wilson. ‘This grant helped us offset some of our development costs – which were considerable.

‘More importantly, we have developed relationships with VicScreen that are ongoing and mutually beneficial.’

Australia’s core strengths

Sledgehammer Games now operates out of four countries. Wilson says that Australia brings its own, unique flavour to this creative mix.

‘Australia is a great place to make video games,’ says Wilson. ‘The talent, the support and the general attitude towards new entrants have all exceeded our expectations.’

Wilson says the prospects for the games industry in Australia are excellent.

‘All the factors that brought us here are still going strong,’ he says. ‘We have an eager, experienced and diverse pool of talent. We have supportive federal and state governments. And as each new player gains a foothold, the games industry gets stronger and creates rich new opportunities.’

Go further, faster with Austrade

International games companies are investing in the Australian games industry. To find out more – including state and federal tax concessions – please visit the digital games page.

Published: 8 September 2022

A futuristic flying machine above a city created by Keywords Studios

Keywords Studios - Digital games

Irish studio takes digital games investment up a level

The Dublin-based games studio, Keywords Studios, is set to open 2 new game-development studios in Australia. The company is well-known as a contributor to major digital games including Fortnite, Mortal Kombat and Halo.

Keywords Studio first expanded to Melbourne in late 2020 with an 85% stake in local games developer, Tantalus Media.

Since then, the company has acquired Wicked Witch and Mighty Games. It currently has 170 employees.

On 5 October 2022, the company announced that it would further expand in Australia, with new locations in Brisbane and Adelaide.

Keyword Studios says that new facilities will create jobs for skilled games workers. The company aims to hire 30 new employees.

Service provider to Australia’s booming games industry

Founded in 1998, Dublin-based Keywords Studios provides software engineering, testing and game development services. It has worked with Activision, Tencent, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sony, Warner Bros and Nintendo.

The company’s 2 new studios in Australia will be known as Tantalus North in Brisbane and Tantalus South in Adelaide.

‘Keywords Studios’ presence in Australia has grown to 5 studios across 3 states,’ says Tom Davies, Head of New Studios & Integration at Keywords in Australia. ‘We are very excited about what our team has achieved already and look forward to an exciting future.’

Financial support for investors

The expansion comes as Australia ups support for its fast-growing digital games industry.

The Australian Government’s Digital Games Tax Offset (DGTO) will offer a refundable tax offset of 30% for eligible games with more than A$500,000 of qualifying expenditure.

The 30% DGTO can be combined with state-based incentives. This means projects may be eligible for incentives worth 40–45% of development costs.

Explore Australia’s amazing digital games ecosystem with Austrade’s new industry guide: Level Up.

Go further, faster with Austrade

Visit the Global Australia website for more information about investment opportunities in Australia. You can also contact an Austrade Investment Specialist in your region.