Victoria’s digital games industry is drawing attention from across the globe during Melbourne International Games Week, bolstering the sector’s potential to become a major driver of jobs growth.

Melbourne International Games Week (MIGW) is the biggest games celebration in the Asia Pacific and Minister for Creative Industries Danny Pearson today announced that a new event would join the MIGW line-up in 2021.

Next year’s MIGW program will include the premiere of the Games for Change Asia Pacific Festival, the first outpost of the famed festival to take place outside of the United States.

Dubbed the “Sundance of Games”, the Games for Change Festival celebrates the power of games and gaming technologies to bring about social change, from the way we live to how we work, learn and interact.

The selection of Melbourne and MIGW for the new festival recognises a key strength of Victoria’s games industry with local developers and studios partnering with a range of industries to work on games projects focused on health and safety, education and even NASA training programs for astronauts.

The digital games industry is the world’s fastest growing entertainment sector and jobs in the Victorian industry grew by 45 per cent between 2015 and 2019 to more than 1,000, according to a Queensland University of Technology/Bond University report.

Local studios continue to grow their teams and international games businesses are increasingly setting their sights on Melbourne. This year US games studio Sledgehammer Games and Colombian studio Cocodrilo Dog have both set up new headquarters in Melbourne, employing local teams.

While more than 80,000 people ordinarily gather in Melbourne for MIGW, this year’s virtual edition has created opportunities for international games leaders to join in the action and for local studios and developers to showcase their games and their capabilities to the world.

Melbourne International Games Week runs until Sunday, 11 October. Find out more at gamesweek.melbourne.