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Speaker 1: So once again the video game industry is going great.

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Speaker 1: Guns jobs are up nearly twenty one percent over the

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Speaker 1: past year, and this is thanks to that tax rebate

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Speaker 1: system that gives back twenty cents on every dollar that

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Speaker 1: has spent in creating a video game. Stephen Knightley is

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Speaker 1: the COO of Rocket Works Games and is with us.

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Speaker 1: Hey Stephen, good morning. So what is going on you guys?

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Speaker 2: On the up and up we are and look, it's

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Speaker 2: really great to see this rebate scheme was put in

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Speaker 2: a year or ago. It's actually delivering on what it

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Speaker 2: was supposed to do, which was create jobs and keep

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Speaker 2: awesome good jobs in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I see though it's a forty million dollar pop,

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Speaker 1: but only about twenty three has been used. Why is

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Speaker 1: money being left on the table?

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Speaker 2: Hey, I think the governmentor set it up to be

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Speaker 2: good stewards of public money. Really under the cap on it,

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Speaker 2: any one studio can only get up to three million

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Speaker 2: dollars on it, so they've just managed the funds well.

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Speaker 2: We actually think I should probably be increased a bit

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Speaker 2: with the obviously money there. Put it this way, they

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Speaker 2: increase that cap to studio. There are jobs, there are

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Speaker 2: more jobs that more people who were just employ if

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Speaker 2: we could use that funds more.

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Speaker 1: Do you think this has stopped businesses going to Australia,

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Speaker 1: which was the original plan.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it has. Look for instance my own studio. Look,

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Speaker 2: I went to Queensland, Queensland and spoke with the government

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Speaker 2: over there. We looked at opening a new team up

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Speaker 2: over there, and instead we've kept a team in Auckland

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Speaker 2: and hiring people in Auckland instead.

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Speaker 1: So why did you do that though, Because you can

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Speaker 1: actually get more money out of Australia. I mean their

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Speaker 1: rebate is what thirty.

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Speaker 2: Cents, well, thirty cents from the federal government Australia plus

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Speaker 2: ten or fifteen cents from the state governments. I could

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Speaker 2: have got forty five dollars in Queensland. Yeah. Correct, So

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Speaker 2: I know a question people often had about these type

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Speaker 2: of rebates as oh, was it a race to the

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Speaker 2: bottom and all that. No it isn't. It's a pretty

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Speaker 2: modest rebate. Weok. We also think there's great talent, great

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Speaker 2: people in New Zealand. So look, one of the interesting

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Speaker 2: things about the games industry in New Zealand is it's

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Speaker 2: mostly bounded and run by New Zealanders. It's not a

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Speaker 2: case of big multinationals coming in and setting up. Look, we've

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Speaker 2: got to it a little bit of key reloyalty. We

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Speaker 2: believe in our people and back up people. There's probably

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Speaker 2: enough to compensate for the thing that Australia does of

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Speaker 2: them more.

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Speaker 1: Stephen, I really appreciate having a chat to you. Look

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Speaker 1: after yourself, have a nice morning at Stephen Knightley Coo

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Speaker 1: rocket Works game and keep up the good work. By

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Speaker 1: the way, one of the businesses claiming the rebate is

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Speaker 1: an outfit called Splitting Points Studios. Now you won't have

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Speaker 1: heard of them, but you might have heard of the

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Speaker 1: game that they've produced, which is Grow a Garden, which

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Speaker 1: is on Roadblocks. Roadblocks is massive with the kids, and

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Speaker 1: the game is if Roadblocks is massive. This game is enormous.

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Speaker 1: One Saturday last month, it had sixteen point four million

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Speaker 1: people around the world playing at exactly the same time,

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Speaker 1: which is a new record. The record was held by

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Speaker 1: Fortnite beforehand five years ago. Some point in twenty twenty,

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Speaker 1: fifteen point three million people were playing Fortnite at the

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Speaker 1: same time, just being beaten by the Kiwi game sixteen

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Speaker 1: point four million.

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