When a video game like Microsoft's "Halo 2" generates pre-order sales of roughly $75 million (at $50 per game) and then sells another $25 million or so on its opening day this Tuesday, people sit up and take notice. Compare that to the film with the record for highest opening-day grosses -– "Spider-Man 2" -– which took in $40 million. Analysts are expecting "Halo 2" to eventually sell about 10 million units -– or $500 million.

Game developers around the world are watching and longing for a piece of the goldmine that the video games industry has become, with revenue of almost $10 billion last year in the U.S. alone.

But, according to the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), developers in many countries are struggling for their very existence and are seeking support from their governments –- which may or may not come through depending on their perception of video games.

"It's a Jekyll-and-Hyde situation, for sure," says Jason Della Rocca, IGDA's program director. "For example, in the U.K., within the span of a week, one official touted the value of game development to the country's economy ... and, the next week, a culture minister described games as the spawn of the devil."

Similarly, last month, Beijing announced it had established an official body that will rate and recommend video games which the board determined to be "healthy." A few weeks later, the Chinese government said it would fund local game development to the tune of $242 million, with China-based developers being offered tax breaks and other financial incentives.

"When you look at governments, you see at one end of the building the economic development guys who are going crazy over what the games industry could mean for the country's economy. After all, games are a hot industry, a knowledge industry, one that leverages IT and sexy job skills," adds Della Rocca. "But, at the other end, there are the culture guys who are chasing the bogeymen and blaming games for all the woes of society. That's where the disconnect is occurring, and it's not helping the local game developers one bit."

An informal survey of game development in France, Ireland, Australia, the Nordic countries, and the U.S., supports Della Rocca's observations.

For example, France was one of the first European countries to grow a strong, successful, innovative games development sector, but that collapsed only a few years ago when the industry transitioned to next-generation consoles.

"Budgets ballooned to $5 million, production teams tripled in size, and the French developers -– who were a bunch of creative, not business, people –- couldn't manage the risks involved," notes Della Rocca. "And many went under."

According to Antoine Villette, co-founder and president of Paris-based Darkworks Studio, which developed "Alone In The Dark: The New Nightmare" for Infogrames in 2001 and is currently building "Cold Fear" for Ubisoft, numerous French developers are still dying at a high rate.

"The only governmental help in France is what we call FAEM – the multimedia publishing help fund," Villette explains. "It concerns all multimedia projects with a cultural interest and it pays a maximum of 250,000 Euros (or about $190,000 U.S.) per project per year."

And so, he says, the independent studios have not had the financial means for the last four years to produce hit games – "and without hits, it's very difficult to attract investors and overseas publishers."

In Sweden, Web and mobile game developer Redikod is overseeing Nordic Game Potential this month in Malmo. It's the first Nordic games conference and it's aimed at influencing the governments of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland to support local game development.

"The Nordic countries have for decades given tax breaks and funded film, TV, literature, and other culture and media," says Redikod CEO Erik Robertson. "We're hoping to convince the Nordic Council of Ministers, the co-operative body for the Nordic governments, to do the same for gaming."

According to Robertson, Sweden has shown a "polite but distracted interest" in supporting game development, Denmark has had a limited initiative in place for a few years, and Iceland supports production of "edutainment" (math and spelling) software. Last year, Norway began budgeting $1 million a year in funding, and Finland has contributed "much larger sums" for game development, he adds.

"Games are too often regarded as dangerous IT for children," explains Robertson, "which is not something public officials, financiers, or other influential people want to be associated with."

In Ireland, funding bodies offer start-up grants of 10-60%, educational support, help in matchmaking with local venture capitalists, and one of the lowest corporate taxes in Europe. But, says, Tony Kelly, project lead and producer at Torc Interactive, only to companies on the tech side -– not the content side.

"Some early experiments in game development in the early '80s tanked badly," says Kelly. "As a result, the agencies are almost as risk-averse as publishers when it comes to supporting games." And so, Ireland has three middleware companies -– Havok, DemonWare, and Torc –- but few content developers."

Torc developed its Instinct Engine, a next-generation gaming platform for the PC and Xbox, and is set to release by year-end "Dreadnought," a mini-game based on that engine.

"The irony is that, in Ireland, if you're considered an artist -– a musician, a poet, a painter -– you can live basically tax-free," says the IGDA's Della Rocca. "That's because the government recognizes the value of art and culture. Unfortunately, game developers aren't considered artists by the government's rules."

In contrast, Australia's Victorian Government has developed an aggressive "Game Plan: Game On" program – at http://www.mmv.vic.gov.au/games -- aimed at growing the country's game export business from $A100 million in 2002 to $A500 million in 2005 to $A1 billion in 2010.

"For developers, that starts with free access to PlayStation 2 and Xbox development kits," says Mark Bishop, manager of ICT investment and business development at Multimedia Victoria, a state government agency. "We are the major sponsor of the annual Australian Game Developers' Conference, and we provide financial support for Victorian companies to attend international trade events, such as GDC and E3. We are also strong supporters of the Game Developers' Association of Australia, and we work very closely with the GDAA to implement programs, such as the professional development pilot program for teachers and trainers involved in computer game development courses."

Meanwhile, back in the States, "it's the Wild West for game developers," says the IGDA's Della Rocca. "It's survive or die. It's the most free market of all the free markets. Game developers are on their own."

With one exception. Four years ago, the government of Baltimore County, Maryland took notice of the fact that it has one of the largest clusters of game development studios in the country -– or at least on the East Coast -– with Firaxis Games, BreakAway Games, Bethesda Softworks, Take Two Interactive, Absolute Quality Games, Enlight, and others.

"These are the type of companies we want in Maryland's technology community," says Fronda J. Cohen of the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development. "They add to the tax base; they bring jobs. And we recognize that the same technology that powers games is also used for military and training simulations, medical, and academic applications. We have identified over 75 Maryland companies that develop and implement interactive and simulation technologies for not only entertainment applications, but what have now been termed 'serious games.' "

Specifically, the Maryland agency works with local banks to assist game developers with funding, provides small amounts of gap financing, and primarily works as an influencer to make introductions to corporations seeking the technology that Maryland's game companies can provide.

"I'm not aware of any other state or county government effort to specifically support the games industry," she adds. "Why aren't any other states offering support? You know, I really just don't know."

But is it really necessary to support game developers who, some say, should be able to sustain themselves in a marketplace where the rewards of building "mainstream games" -– such as "Halo 2" -– are vast?

"In my opinion, direct government funding of mainstream developers and content is a waste," says the IGDA's Della Rocca. "The folks who made 'Half-Life 2' and 'Grand Theft Auto' don't need support; they're going to make their money. You want to support content that wouldn't necessarily get made otherwise, like original IP. Give that developer a non-refundable grant or a seed loan. But you need to fund a lot of those because many of the games are going to be crap. It's a numbers game. You need to place 30 bets and, if you're lucky, a handful of them will break through. That's standard investment strategy: the hits will pay for the losses."

He cites DMA Design, a small developer in Scotland who hit it big with "Grand Theft Auto" and was later bought up by publisher Rockstar Games and redubbed "Rockstar North."

"Their success has brought recognition, wealth, jobs, economic development, and other publishers to Scotland who are saying, 'Hey, if the GTA guys come from here, there must be others who have similar great ideas,' says Della Rocca. "It's the bees-to-honey syndrome; success attracts lots of activity. If you want this to happen in your country, don't just sprinkle a few dollars around so the local game developers can get some freelance or outsource work. That's bottom-of-the-barrel stuff. Think of GTA. Despite all the criticism about violence in GTA, my guess is that the Scottish government loves those guys."

Paul "The Game Master" Hyman was the editor-in-chief of CMP Media's GamePower. He's covered the games industry for over a dozen years. His columns for The Reporter run exclusively on the Web site.