Stephen Knightly: RocketWerks Games CEO on the impact of the $160 million rebate for the industry

The video game industry's going gangbusters, with the number of people employed up by more than 20%. 

This is due to a four-year, $160 million sector rebate, offering 20 cents back for every dollar eligible studios spend.  

Forty studios will receive a share of $22.4 million this year, including RocketWerks Games. 

Its CEO, Stephen Knightly, told Heather du Plessis-Allan $40 million is available yearly, but the Government's put a cap on it.  

He says any one studio can only get up to $3 million, but thinks it should be increased as there's obviously money there. 

Knightly says the scheme has delivered on what it was intended for, keeping studios from moving overseas.  

He says he looked at starting a team up in Australia, but instead they're now staying in Auckland, and hiring more people. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So once again the video game industry is going great.
Guns jobs are up nearly twenty one percent over the
past year, and this is thanks to that tax rebate
system that gives back twenty cents on every dollar that
has spent in creating a video game. Stephen Knightley is
the COO of Rocket Works Games and is with us.
Hey Stephen, good morning. So what is going on you guys?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
On the up and up we are and look, it's
really great to see this rebate scheme was put in
a year or ago. It's actually delivering on what it
was supposed to do, which was create jobs and keep
awesome good jobs in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, I see though it's a forty million dollar pop,
but only about twenty three has been used. Why is
money being left on the table?

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey, I think the governmentor set it up to be
good stewards of public money. Really under the cap on it,
any one studio can only get up to three million
dollars on it, so they've just managed the funds well.
We actually think I should probably be increased a bit
with the obviously money there. Put it this way, they
increase that cap to studio. There are jobs, there are
more jobs that more people who were just employ if

(01:00):
we could use that funds more.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Do you think this has stopped businesses going to Australia,
which was the original plan.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes, it has. Look for instance my own studio. Look,
I went to Queensland, Queensland and spoke with the government
over there. We looked at opening a new team up
over there, and instead we've kept a team in Auckland
and hiring people in Auckland instead.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
So why did you do that though, Because you can
actually get more money out of Australia. I mean their
rebate is what thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Cents, well, thirty cents from the federal government Australia plus
ten or fifteen cents from the state governments. I could
have got forty five dollars in Queensland. Yeah. Correct, So
I know a question people often had about these type
of rebates as oh, was it a race to the
bottom and all that. No it isn't. It's a pretty
modest rebate. Weok. We also think there's great talent, great

(01:48):
people in New Zealand. So look, one of the interesting
things about the games industry in New Zealand is it's
mostly bounded and run by New Zealanders. It's not a
case of big multinationals coming in and setting up. Look, we've
got to it a little bit of key reloyalty. We
believe in our people and back up people. There's probably
enough to compensate for the thing that Australia does of
them more.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Stephen, I really appreciate having a chat to you. Look
after yourself, have a nice morning at Stephen Knightley Coo
rocket Works game and keep up the good work. By
the way, one of the businesses claiming the rebate is
an outfit called Splitting Points Studios. Now you won't have
heard of them, but you might have heard of the
game that they've produced, which is Grow a Garden, which
is on Roadblocks. Roadblocks is massive with the kids, and

(02:29):
the game is if Roadblocks is massive. This game is enormous.
One Saturday last month, it had sixteen point four million
people around the world playing at exactly the same time,
which is a new record. The record was held by
Fortnite beforehand five years ago. Some point in twenty twenty,
fifteen point three million people were playing Fortnite at the
same time, just being beaten by the Kiwi game sixteen

(02:49):
point four million.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
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