The government of Singapore is looking to invest more heavily in its games industry. The Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore has announced an initiative to boost funding for large-scale media projects such as films and MMO games, to put "an emphasis on projects that are internationally-marketable and scale across media platforms." For games in particular, the MDA is increasing funding to 20 million Singapore dollars (about $14.6 million).
This money has been earmarked over three years to implement the "GAME+ Programme, which aims to address the needs of the entire games value chain by providing support for concept development all the way to go-to-market strategies." This GAME+ strategy has three components: INSPIRE+, INNOVATE+ and INVIGORATE+.
The first will see MDA "co-investing up to 30 percent in large-scale, bigger-budget game content projects such as the development of multi-million massively multiplayer online games." The second involves "a joint call with the Central Provident Fund Board for financial management games on social networking sites and mobile phones." And the third component deals with a "series of quarterly calls today targeted at start-ups and individuals for proposals for games on emerging platforms such as social networking sites, mobile phones, handheld devices and online game services."
