Ed Ormon and Andrew James from Uppercut Games are among the leaders in game development in Australia. Photo: Morgan Kenyon.
The video game industry is worth an eyewatering $250 billion a year, double that of the film industry.
Yet until recently, Australia hasn’t really backed the development of video games domestically.
This could change following the recent reveal of Canberra-based studio Uppercut Games’ new project, Magicians: The Devil’s Deal, at one of the world’s biggest gaming conferences, the Xbox Games Showcase 2026.
Developed by Canberra-based studio Uppercut Games, Magicians: The Devil’s Deal is a narrative-driven first-person shooter set in Theatreland, a twisted world built on illusion and control.
Players take on the role of Jacob Menteuro, a celebrated stage magician cast into Hell, who must master deadly magic, steal the powers of rival magicians, and fight his way free. The game is set for release in 2027 on Xbox, PS5 and PC.
Co-founder and director at Uppercut Games Ed Orman said it has been difficult to keep the project a secret, but he is proud to now share it with the world.
“We’ve been building an amazing team at Uppercut Games here in Canberra and across Australia to make this game,” he said.
“To have it revealed as part of the Xbox Games Showcase is something we’re immensely proud of.”
Uppercut has been working on the game for several years and has received partial funding from Screen Canberra.
Screen Canberra CEO Holly Trueman said the venture into gaming is a new one for Screen Canberra, but one they are excited to see grow.
“We have only just started funding games. Screen Canberra has been supporting TV and film projects for a long time, but we haven’t really had a formal mechanism to support games until recently,” Dr Trueman said.
“We learnt that Canberra has this underbelly of these amazing creatives that have never really had the chance to show off their talents.
“We met the team at Undercut Gaming a few times and saw what they were working on, and we were excited to support them with their development.
“For a couple of years, we’ve had to be quiet about what they were working on. Gaming is a pretty secretive industry, but to see now that they’ve had their game revealed at one of the biggest gaming events in the world is just really exciting.”
In recent years, Australia has helped some of the biggest Indie games in the world, with Hollow Knight: Silksong, developed in Adelaide, winning Best Action/Adventure Game at the 2025 Gaming Awards and Untitled Goose Game, developed in Melbourne, selling more than 3 million copies since 2019.
With the fresh hype around Magicians: The Devil’s Deal, Dr Trueman said she would love to see Canberra become the gaming capital of Australia.
“In Canberra, we can’t dig up iron ore, but maybe the iron ore is in the form of the next smash hit game,” she said.
“We’ve been working super hard up to that time to build businesses, build capability, and create some opportunities for our younger developers.
“We’ve got a lot of people in Canberra who are in this space, and that’s where we’ll be focusing in Screen Canberra over the next six months, which is to really build up, so there are really strong projects that we can move forward. ”
Magicians: The Devil’s Deal is now available to wishlist on Xbox.
