The Australian Labor Party has pledged to reintroduce the Australian Interactive Games Fund if voted in during the country’s upcoming elections on May 18.
It’s notable to see a prominent political party campaigning using video game focused policies, and the proposed reinstatement of the funding program would be a big win for Australian game developers.
As reported by Kotaku, Labor would bring back the initiative (which was scrapped back in 2014) by establishing a $25 million kitty that would be dished out in the form of grants over the course of three years.
The Labor Party claims the Fund would help reinvigorate Australia’s game development sector by giving studios old and new a way to access finance and grow as a business.
“Restarting the Fund will kick start the rapid growth of our games development sector through the establishment of new game studios in Australia, investment and projects flowing into existing Australian studios and a range of joint ventures,” reads Labor’s policy.
“This will enable a variety of works and the generation of original intellectual property in long form games, apps, virtual reality and augmented reality with output across the arts, communications, digital economy, innovation, education, training, health, defense, and more.”