Developer KMM Brisbane has shut down, following the completion of a licensed movie game project for Happy Feet 2. The studio's art director, Jason Stark, believes that the Australian game development scene might be entering a tailspin from which it may never emerge, having recently seen the closure of Pandemic Studios, Krome Studios, THQ’s Brisbane and Melbourne studios, EA's Australian Visceral Games branch and (most recently) L.A. Noire maker Team Bondi.
"The writing has been on the wall for a long time," said Stark to ABC Melbourne. "But it's maybe a little surprising the extent to which it has happened. We've all expected the industry to be shrinking - it's been bad times. It's gone from being a mild contraction to being pretty much obliterated."
One reason for the closure of KMM Brisbane and other Australian studios is the fact that the Australian dollar is now high, compared to 15 years ago when it was half that of the U.S. dollar."We could simply make a video game for half the price of what they could in the United States – that's when you found a lot of the studios taking off," described Stark. "With the dollar currently above the U.S., it's now more expensive to make a video game here than what an American publisher considers locally."
Making matters worse for Australia is the large tax subsidies in other parts of the world, particularly Canada and the Quebec province, whose government subsidizes a staggering 37.5 percent of a game studio's payroll. "They're hiring like crazy [in Canada] and that's where a lot of local talent is flocking to ... where streets are paved with video game gold," said Stark. "I'm personally not a believer in subsidizing industries - I believe the free market should take care of it. But having said that, we're losing a lot of talent, and your nation quickly gets to the point where if times do come good again, we're not going to have enough experienced people here to start the companies."
Stark estimates that a full 90 percent of game developers leave Australia for greener pastures and those that stay for other commitments typically leave the industry. "An excellent environment artist who I worked very closely with - he has had job offers from the likes of Bioware – they're a very prestigious games company – but because his family is staying here he will instead be taking a job in IT putting PCs together," he said. “That is not the exception, that is the rule. Either people are moving overseas or they are seriously downgrading their career choices."
The one bright spot is that of mobile development, with smaller studios in Australia like Halfbrick Studios and Firemint doing well for themselves. "The days of the large Aussie game studio are numbered, at least for now, and the survivors will be turning towards iOS (the iPhone/iPad operating system) and they will be starting small and agile," said Stark."Hopefully one day they will grow to be bigger again, but it certainly seems to be the way the local industry is heading, at least for the next few years."
Stark says he plans to start his own small mobile studio. "Another job is pretty much non-existent. That was my first option, to obviously look elsewhere, but there is no work to be had. It's very slim pickings," he said. "I have a family here. I like the sun. I'm not in a hurry to move to Canada, so that's pretty much my only option – to make a go of it alone."
