Australian developers have traditionally been at a disadvantage when developing for Sony platforms, since Sony had no developer support presence on the continent. Australian developers had to go through Sony's European offices.
The new program, launched in Victoria, aims to rectify this situation. It is bankrolled by $250,000 (Australian dollars) and may be rolled out throughout the country. The
Games Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) is helping direct the program and lobbying other Australian state governments to follow suit.
The kits will go to smaller teams which wouldn't necessarily have the funds to purchase a PS2 dev kit, but which have a track record developing games for other platforms and would put them to good use. Victoria's Multimedia Ministry will announce which teams will receive the kits tomorrow.
