[PIGMI] Activision Blizzard lobbying for new R&D tax changes

[Nick Lowe]

Thanks Kat and others for the "Big Ups". :)

What differentiates us from other locations? A huge number of things:
the dominance of the mining industry; our multi-cultural composition;
the legend of Big Bertha; basically, our local history and culture.

Now these things don't necessarily translate into Perth being a better
place than any other in which to produce games, but they do breed a
unique character that will be reflected (overtly or subtly) in products
that come from Perth - including games.

Personally, I think that it's valuable to utilise our local character
rather than try to subdue it. If we are a generic location making
generic games, we're only ever going to compete on quality and price
(and likely lose in the short-medium term).

If the industry is sustained by subsidies, that money will probably be
wasted when the winds change and somewhere else presents a better bottom
line. (Note: Although clearly subsidies could play a major part in
setting up and encouraging the local industry.)

Consider Japan, which is famous for certain types of games: JRPGs,
fighting games, platformers, mecha games, nekogames.com (check it out).
Their games reflect a unique perspective and playing their games is a
way of participating in their culture.

So what about Perth? I want to know what games can come out of Perth.
We're a much smaller community, so our games will more directly reflect
our individual personalities. Knowing so many of you, I want to know
what sort of games you will make when you can make whatever you want.

How will you tackle inspiration and challenges, and what will you
produce? Whatever you create will be a product of your personalities and
experiences, many of which are borne from your lives here in Perth.

If we can produce compelling local content, it will be unique - and
given the huge market for games, and the appeal of whatever it is that
we bring to our games, I think that it will sell (provided it is also
high quality, readily available, and affordable.)

I spent a long time feeling that pursuing "Western Australian" content
is a bit cheesy, but I feel very differently now. I want to find out
what can come from Perth when we plainly represent ourselves, and I'm
sure that other markets (people from different places) will see
something special and appealing in our games if we do just that.

Creating a market for Western Australian games would create a reason for
people to invest in the local games industry.

Aside from all of that, it's less about where we're located and more
about what we can do (and what we have to show to prove that we can do
it). With that in mind, we need to just keep plugging away. Let's
challenge ourselves to: produce more games! produce better games!
develop our skills! develop our businesses! and nurture new talent!

Let's Make Games! :D

- Nick

In regards to Canada vs. Australia competing for global investment in
large games companies.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of financial disincentives for people to
invest in the Australian games industry: the high Australian dollar;
high salaries; the lack of government support for (and understanding of)
games development; and safer competing investment options (mining and
bank shares, and all the tax concessions given for real estate
investment).

Addressing tax incentives can help compensate for other disincentives,
and changes should be implemented (even if they are only for a
short-term basis - ie. while the dollar is high and the mining boom is
in full swing).

On Thu, 2011-03-10 at 17:51 +0800, Dan Venkitachalam wrote:
> From what I know of the Canadian scene (admittedly very little) - most
> of the incentives are provided by the provincial governments.  This is
> why so much activity has sprung up in Montreal in the past few years.
>  British Columbia has been improving their incentives to individual
> companies, Ubisoft recently opened an office in Vancouver and were
> recruiting in large numbers when I left.
> 
> 
> The Vancouver game dev scene is considerably larger than Perth and
> there was a lot of cross-pollination between related industries (web,
> social networking, education, film).  The big monthly indie game
> meetups (fullindie.com) regularly drew over 100 people, to the point
> they were finding it hard to find a large enough venues to host
> everyone.
> 
> 
> It didn't get there overnight.  I think Vancouver had the advantage of
> having a large critical mass of people involved in creative industries
> as well as a pool of technical talent .  EA was probably a large part
> of that.  And likely predated any incentive schemes to grow the
> industry there.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Dan.
> 
> On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 5:14 PM, Brendan Ragan <lordmortis at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>         Other than a few things that Kat said below, this is a
>         possible reason why Canada may not be looking so good:
>         
>         
>         Unemployment is currently at
>         7.8% http://www.hrmguide.net/canada/jobmarket/canadian-unemployment.htm
>         Their Deficit in the 2010 budget is $49.2 Billion
>         (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Canadian_federal_budget)
>         (They've been running deficits since 2008 and the total debts
>         are up at $500-600 million now) 
>         
>         
>         The Harper government is conservative and is less likely to
>         approve such tax cuts than the current australian layout
>         (mainly because of the large influence the greens and
>         independents have - it's likely they will sell said cuts to
>         the independents as something that could be shoved out in the
>         bush (a.la the bunbury technology park that's happening here
>         in WA))
>         
>         
>         Another thing to remember is: These companies don't,
>         generally, make the majority of their income in Australia.
>         They make it overseas - they don't pay *all* that much of
>         their tax here. 
>         
>         
>         As for Kat's comments below: Hey, at least it's only really
>         hot for 2 months of the year, the rest of it's pretty good :)
>         Most people would take 40 above for a few days instead of 40
>         below for weeks :P (Of course Vancouver isn't like this..)
>         
>         
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