The videogame industry

This chapter provides a history and analysis of videogame production in Australia. We trace the Australian videogames industry from its emergence out of the hobbyist scenes of the 1980s, through the work-for-hire years of the 1990s and 2000s, to a precarious and aspirational position in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. We show how the Australian games industry has been shaped and reshaped by the flows of global capital, from the overseas corporate investment during the work-for-hire era, to the logics of platform capitalism that govern contemporary independent game development. Across this history, we look at how the changing videogaming landscape and the rise of smartphones, independent game development and digital-distribution services reconfigured the practices and possibilities of game development in Australia. The Australian videogames industry is both complex and ever-changing. In mapping its history, we look to contrast with, and complicate, dominant existing narratives that focus primarily on large-scale blockbuster projects. Australian game development is driven and defined by the labour of small independent teams with low budgets seeking global success. It is these developers, their games and the challenges they face that tell us about Australia’s place in the global videogames industry.