The video game industry in Australia is worth $2.96 billion annually as of 2017, inclusive of traditional retail and digital sales. A report in 2022 by
Austrade estimated that 3,228 Australians worked in the video game industry. In fiscal year 2016–17, revenue from Australian game developers was approximately $118.5 million, 80 percent of which was from overseas sales.
Video game retailers in Australia include
EB Games,
JB Hi-Fi,
Gametraders
Gametraders is an Australian retailer of computer and video games, accessories, anime DVDs and toys. The company was founded in 2001 by Mark Langford, and they have 8 stores across Australia, after a large amount of store closures (at one stag ...
and
The Gamesmen
The Gamesmen is an Australian video game, table top games and toy retailer based in Penshurst, New South Wales. It was founded in 1982. It is one of the country's last independent game stores.
Retro Video Game Museum
The Retro Video Game Museum ...
. Video games are also sold at department stores like
Big W
Big W (stylized as BIG W) is an Australian chain of discount department stores, which was founded in regional New South Wales in 1964. The company is a division of Woolworths Group and as at 2019 operated 176 stores, with around 22,000 employee ...
and
Target Australia
Target Australia Pty Ltd (formerly Lindsay's and Lindsay's Target, formerly stylised as Target. and doing business as Target and Target Australia) is a department store chain owned by Australian retail conglomerate Wesfarmers. Target stocks c ...
.
History
The Gamesmen
The Gamesmen is an Australian video game, table top games and toy retailer based in Penshurst, New South Wales. It was founded in 1982. It is one of the country's last independent game stores.
Retro Video Game Museum
The Retro Video Game Museum ...
, an Australian video game retailer, was established in 1982. They were the first retailer to sell video games online in Australia when they launched their website on 18 July 1996.
Beam Software was one of the first Australian game development studios to achieve global success, with a
text adventure adaption of ''
The Hobbit'' released in 1982 for the
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer.
Referred to during development as t ...
. The company went on to produce other successful titles including ''
The Way of the Exploding Fist
''The Way of the Exploding Fist'' is a 1985 fighting game based on Japanese martial arts developed by Beam Software, by a team consisting of Gregg Barnett, Bruce Bayley, Neil Brennan and David Johnston. Originally developed on the Commodore 64 ...
'' for
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...
in 1985 and ''
Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
'' for the
SEGA Dreamcast
The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, Nint ...
in 2001.
Ozisoft
is a Japanese multinational video game publisher headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo. Its international branches, Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe, are respectively headquartered in Irvine, California and ...
, a major distributor of games, was established in 1982.
Other early game development studios in Australia include
SSG, who developed ''
Reach for the Stars'' in 1983, and
Micro Forté
Micro Forté Pty Ltd is an Australian electronic entertainment company with development studios in Canberra and Sydney. Founded in 1985 by John De Margheriti at a time when there was little game development presence in Australia, Micro Forté h ...
, founded by
John De Margheriti in 1985.
In 1990, the Australian video game market generated an annual revenue of , with
arcade video games generating $200 million and home consumer games generating $100 million.
John De Margheriti later established the
Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) in 1996 and founded the Game Developers Association of Australia (GDAA) in 1999. The first president of the GDAA was Adam Lancman, who had previously worked at
Beam Software.
The Game Wizards, an Australian video game retailer, was established in 1990. It was the second retailer to sell games online in Australia when it set up its website in 1997. In 2007, the company's 22 stores were acquired by
GAME
A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...
and re-branded. By 2009 GAME Australia had expanded to over 100 stores.
EB Games entered the market as a video game retailer in 1997.
The
real-time strategy game ''
Dark Reign: The Future of War'', developed by Queensland-based
Auran
N3V Games (formerly Auran Development and later n3vrf41l Publishing) is an Australian video game developer and publisher based in Helensvale, Queensland, Australia. Auran is now operated as a holding company, with operations and development ced ...
, achieved widespread critical and commercial success upon its release in 1997.
Between 1999 and 2002, the top five best-selling games in Australia were ''
Pokémon
(an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise.
In terms of ...
'' games. The series had sold over units in Australia by 2002.
A research report published by the association in 2005 found that the 76 per cent of households had a device for playing video games, 38 per cent of gamers were female and the average age of a gamer was 24.
In 2005, the top three games by units sold were ''
Gran Turismo 4'', ''
GTA: San Andreas'' and ''
Pokémon Emerald
is a 2004 role-playing video game developed by Game Freak, published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance. It was first released in Japan in 2004, and was later released internationally in 2005. It is a third version a ...
''.
The most popular game genres were
strategy
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...
,
adventure and
action.
Team Bondi, a Sydney-based
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
third-party game developer, was founded in 2003.
The studio was responsible for the
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
,
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
and
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
title ''
L.A. Noire'', published by
multinational video game developer and publisher
Rockstar Games (also popular for the ''
Grand Theft Auto'' series). ''L.A. Noire'' was both a critical and commercial success, with over 5 million sales. Despite this, Team Bondi was in massive debt before and after the launch of ''L.A. Noire'' and the company
wound up
Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a company is brought to an end in Canada, United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and many other countries. The assets and property of the company are redistrib ...
on 5 October 2011.
Between 2005 and 2015, a number of other large studios operating in Australia shut down including KMM Brisbane,
Pandemic Studios
Pandemic Studios, LLC was an American video game developer based in Westwood, Los Angeles. Andrew Goldman and Josh Resnick founded the studio in 1998 after leaving Activision. Pandemic Studios, alongside BioWare, was acquired in 2005 by Elevation ...
,
Krome Studios
Krome Studios Pty Ltd. is an Australian video game company. Its headquarters were in Brisbane and it previously had offices in Adelaide and Melbourne (Krome Studios Melbourne). Krome Studios is best known for their '' Ty the Tasmanian Tiger'' g ...
,
THQ
THQ Inc. was an American video game company based in Agoura Hills, California. It was founded in April 1990 by Jack Friedman, originally in Calabasas, and became a public company the following year through a reverse merger takeover. Initial ...
,
Visceral Games
Visceral Games (formerly EA Redwood Shores) was an American video game developer studio owned by Electronic Arts. The studio is known for the ''Dead Space'' series.
History EA Redwood Shores (1998–2009)
In 1998, Electronic Arts (EA) moved fr ...
and
2K Australia
2K Australia Pty Ltd (formerly Irrational Games Australia Pty. Ltd.) was an Australian video game developer based in Canberra. The company was founded as Irrational Games Australia, a subsidiary of Irrational Games, in April 2000. Irrational Ga ...
.
During the same period, smaller game developers were having success with
mobile game
A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...
s. In 2010,
Halfbrick, a studio based in Brisbane, released ''
Fruit Ninja'' which has since been downloaded over a billion times. Other notable mobile games developed in Australia include ''
Crossy Road
''Crossy Road'' is an arcade video game released on 20 November 2014. It was developed and published by Australian video game developer Hipster Whale, with the name and concept of the game playing on the age-old joke "Why did the chicken cross t ...
'' and ''
Framed''. In October 2015, half of the top 10 mobile games in the
App Store were Australian made.
EB Games held the first
EB Expo video game convention at the
Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre in 2011. The expo was attended by over 10,000 people. The expo moved to the
Sydney Showground for 2012 and was held there annually until the expo returned to the
Gold Coast
Gold Coast may refer to:
Places Africa
* Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana:
** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642)
** Dutch G ...
in 2017. 36,750 people attended the expo in 2015.
At
PAX Prime 2012, it was announced that
PAX
Pax or PAX may refer to:
Peace
* Peace (Latin: ''pax'')
** Pax (goddess), the Roman goddess of peace
** Pax, a truce term
* Pax (liturgy), a salutation in Catholic and Lutheran religious services
* Pax (liturgical object), an object formerly kiss ...
would expand internationally to Australia.
PAX Australia was held for the first time in 2013 at the
Melbourne Showgrounds
Melbourne Showgrounds is located in the inner north-western suburb of Ascot Vale, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, next door to Flemington Racecourse. The largest and most flexible indoor/outdoor venue space in Melbourne the Showgrounds ...
. The annual event remains the only PAX event held out side of the United States.
On 14 May 2012 GAME, which had since downsized to 26 stores,
went into administration and subsequently closed down.
The Digital Australia 2012 report, published by the IGEA, found that female participation in video gaming had risen to 48 per cent and the average age of an Australian video gamer had hit 32. Traditional retail sales of video games in Australia during 2012 were $1.16 Billion; digital sales were estimated at $620 Million.
In 2013, Australia was ranked 14th in the world in terms of video game revenues.
On 22 June 2015 the
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...
commenced an inquiry into the future of Australia's video game development industry. The subsequent report was tabled on 29 April 2016.
Trade bodies
The industry body for video games in Australia is the
Interactive Games & Entertainment Association
The Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) is the industry association for computer and video games in Australia and New Zealand.
The IGEA represents companies that are publishers, distributors and marketers of interactive enterta ...
(IGEA). IGEA was formed in 2002 initially as the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA)
as an
industry association
A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partici ...
for publishers, distributors and marketers of video games. The IEAA was renamed to IGEA in 2009 to present more focus on video game entertainment.
The Game Developers Association of Australia (GDAA) supports video game development. Among its activities is organizing the annual
Game Connect Asia Pacific
Game Connect: Asia Pacific (GCAP) is Australia’s annual game development conference and networking event for the Asia Pacific Games Industry and is administered by the Game Developers’ Association of Australia.
See also
*Australian Game Devel ...
(GCAP) conference.
On March 6, 2020, the GDAA members votes to allow IGEA to acquire all the assets of GDAA under the IGEA banner, which will include operations of GCAP.
Censorship
Video games could not be designated an adults only or 18+ rating in Australia until 1 January 2013.
An R18+ classification rating has been available for this purpose for other forms of media since the introduction of the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995. Prior to 1 January 2013, a video game that had content deemed unsuitable for persons under the age of 18 would be 'Refused Classification' by the
Australian Classification Board (ACB) under this act. Classification of video games is mandatory in Australia and material refused classification is legally banned from sale, hire or import.
Notable video games that were refused classification by the ACB prior to the introduction of an R18+ for video games include: ''
Duke Nukem 3D
''Duke Nukem 3D'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by 3D Realms. It is a sequel to the platform games ''Duke Nukem'' and ''Duke Nukem II'', published by 3D Realms.
''Duke Nukem 3D'' features the adventures of the titular Duke Nuke ...
'', ''
Grand Theft Auto III
''Grand Theft Auto III'' is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third main entry in the ''Grand Theft Auto'' series, following 1999's ''Grand Theft Auto 2'', and the fifth instalment o ...
'', ''
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'', ''
Left 4 Dead 2'', ''
Mortal Kombat (2011)
''Mortal Kombat'' (also known as ''Mortal Kombat 9'') is a 2011 fighting video game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the ninth main installment in the ''Mortal Kombat'' franchise and ...
'' and ''
The House of the Dead: Overkill Extended Cut''. Most of these games were subsequently modified by the publishers and later reclassified MA15+ and made available for sale in Australia. Although some games (''GTA 3'' and ''Mortal Kombat Komplete Edition'') would be later rated R18+ uncut and ''The House of the Dead: Overkill'' was given an uncut MA15+ on appeal.
On 22 July 2011, the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General agreed in-principle to introduce legislation that would allow video games to be classified R18+. Amendments to the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 came into effect on 1 January 2013 to allow video games to receive the adults only rating.
Games that were refused classification prior to 1 January 2013 can be designated an R18+ rating and made available for sale in Australia if the publisher of the game applies for re-classification and pays a fee.
Games can still be refused classification and banned from sale if they "depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified", "describe or depict in a way that is likely to cause offence to a reasonable adult, a person who is, or appears to be, a child under 18 (whether the person is engaged in sexual activity or not)", or "promote, incite or instruct in matters of crime or violence".
Notable video games that have been refused classification since the introduction of the R18+ rating for video games include: ''
Saints Row IV
''Saints Row IV'' is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Volition and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to 2011's '' Saints Row: The Third'', the fourth installment of the ''Saints Row'' series, and the final main installment i ...
'', ''
South Park: The Stick of Truth'', ''
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number'' and ''
Outlast 2
''Outlast 2'' (stylized as OU⸸LASTII) is a 2017 first-person psychological horror survival video game developed and published by Red Barrels. A sequel to the 2013 video game ''Outlast'', the game features a journalist named Blake Langermann, ...
''.
Material which is refused classification is put on the
Australian Customs and Border Protection Service list of prohibited items. Any copies of these games found at the border will be seized, and its recipient, depending on the number of copies being imported may receive up to AUD$110,000 in fines.
An individual is allowed to own, use, access or create Refused Classification items, including games (except in Western Australia and/or if they contain illegal content). But a Refused Classification rating means that the created item is illegal to sell, hire, advertise or import within Australia.
See also
*
:Video game companies of Australia
References
External links
Australian Centre for the Moving Image – History of Game Development in Australia
{{History of video games
Science and technology in Australia