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Joy Keene: Game Developers Association Executive Director discusses rebate expansion to games industry. · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Labour's keeping this policy, the policy train rolling, I should
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: say this time it's all about video games. If elected,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: they plan to expand the game development Rebate, which gives
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Kiwi studios access to forty million bucks a year to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: grow the industry. Joe Joy rather Keen is executive director
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: of the Game Developers Association. With me this morning, Joy,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: good morning, good morning.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: How are you very well?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Thank you? How many studios use the current subsidy.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: At the moment we have forty one studios accessing the subsidy.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And is all the money, because I think it's up
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to forty million a year, is all the money that's
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: currently on the table being taken up being used?
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: No, not at all. So this particular well the twenty
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: twenty five financial year, we had twenty four million used
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: out of that forty million allocation.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Right, And is that because people there aren't enough companies
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: out there to actually take it or people don't know
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: about it.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: It's definitely more and not enough people qualify for it.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: So we have a lot of developers that are small,
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  Speaker 2: maybe one to three staff, that are turning over less
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  Speaker 2: than two hundred dollars, and so they weren't able to
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: access the rebate based on that entry qualification right.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: And they will now be at well, assuming labor gets
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: into power then they would be eligible for it. What
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: constitutions gaming, What do you actually have to be doing?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: So it's actually game development, so it's the creation of
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  Speaker 2: video games essentially, and it's an industry that's It's very interesting. Actually,
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: when you're making a video game, you don't normally have
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: any income at all, so it's very hard to make
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: a video game without money. And then once your game
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: is made and you release it to the world, then
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: you might make money. So what the rebate actually does
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: is it just helps give the studios a bit more
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  Speaker 2: resource to be able to go off and make the
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: games and get them out there. We have a fabulous,
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: fabulous development agency called Code who helped the smaller studios
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: get ready for launching games and to ensure that they
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: are successful games very quickly.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: How many businesses have used it have been successful? Do
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  Speaker 1: we know?
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  Speaker 2: Oh? Actually most of them. So we have companies like
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  Speaker 2: pick Park who are award winning developers, Dinosaur Polo Club,
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: Grindy Gear Games and they pass of Excel too, which
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: is New Zealand's most successful game at the moment, but
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: every game that comes out just really seems to resonate
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: and the world curn't good enough of New Zealand developed games.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Droy appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for being with me.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Joy Keen New Zealand Game Developers Association for more from
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks
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