5 Sep 2017

NZ game studios aim for the big bucks

3:13 pm on 5 September 2017

New Zealand video game developers have pitched an ambitious target of $1 billion revenue within the next decade.

Video games

Photo: 123rf

An independent survey has found in the year ending March, the industry made just shy of $100 million - most of that from overseas.

That was up 12 percent on the previous year's $89m.

Game Developers' Association board member Stephen Knightly said it was aiming much higher than that.

He said $1b was the goal, with more developers, more investors and more support.

"There aren't really any investors in New Zealand with experience in this sector and there aren't really any easy accessible other funds," he said.

Mr Knightly said crowdfunding had been successful in the past, but it was a competitive environment.

He said gone were the days when small $10,000 investments were enough, nowadays hundreds of thousands of dollars were needed.

"We've got the skills, we've got a cluster of studios that work together ... I think it really is just accelerating the growth by having more development funding so we can crank those original ideas and test them," he said.

A Game Developers' Conference is being held later this week at AUT University in Auckland.

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs