Senator Conroy Meets with GDAA to commence the establishment of a High Level Committee to review GDAA's call for a tax rebate
MELBOURNE - Friday 29 February, 2008 - Senator The Hon Stephen Conroy, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate, met with the CEO and President of the GDAA regarding the establishment a high level committee to review the GDAA's call for a tax rebate for the games industry in Australia.
Senator Conroy met with representatives from the Game Developers' Association of Australia and has kept his pre-election promise of establishing a high level committee to review the tax rebate situation for game developers.
CEO of the Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) Greg Bondar said after the meeting with the Senator, "We were warmly greeted by the Minister and he has commenced putting in place arrangements for the establishment of the high level committee at which game developers can put their case for a tax rebate."
Senator Conroy met with Gregory Bondar, CEO of the GDAA and Tom Crago, CEO of Tantalus in Melbourne.
Stats and facts about the games industry:
• The Australian games industry is worth an estimated $110 million per year
• Australians spend over A$2 million per day on interactive computer games
• Total sales in 2006 for the industry was $1 billion
• Annual compound growth of the industry is 12.3%
• 12.5m games were sold in 2006
• 6.1m video game consoles have been sold since 2000
• 3.6m Australian households have a video game console
• 4.8million Australian households have an internet enabled PC which is capable of playing games
• The average age of gamers is 28 years
• 60%of gamers are male and 40% female
• 35% of gamers are parents and 8% are seniors
• Families are an integral part of playing games
• 8,500 Australians are directly employed in the video game industry in 2007
• By 2010, the GDAA estimate that 18,000 people will be directly employed in the video game industry in Australia.