With the acquisition of IR Gurus by Red Mile recently finalised, PALGN took the time to interview IR Gurus CEO Mike Fegan about the acquisition and what impact that is having on the studio. As well as some insight into IR Gurus plans for the future, Mike's thoughts on how Australia is perceived on a world stage and the ever-present 40% tax rebate issue.
I am 110% in support of the GDAA on this matter as I know from spending literally years of my life knocking on the doors of overseas game publishers that at the end of the day ALL international publisher’s are ‘risk adverse’ and if you can in anyway help them to alleviate their perceived risk in a project they will look upon your deal proposal favourably.
Also, as an industry we are already currently falling behind production capabilities in other countries that have been heavily subsidised by Governments like those in Canada and China.
These initiatives have literally created thousands of jobs and spawned hundreds of independent development companies that have the potential to do it better than we can if we don’t watch out.
In order to combat this competition we now need far more ‘deal flow’ in production contracts that are stimulated by federal government financial incentives or the opportunity to firmly establish Australia as a true hot bed of game development will be lost forever!
I would also say that the GDAA is not looking for a handout here, it simply wants an ‘even playing field’ from the federal government to the same level as that which the local Film & TV production industry enjoys.