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Why there isn't enough good gaming companies in Canada?

Boyani
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Boyani vertex
I was curious about the gaming industry in Canada, because i want to move there. But, i am a bit disappointed of very small number of AAA Studios in Canada, in compare with US, they are lots of AAA Studios.

Is Gaming industry in Canada is not well formed or why less AAA companies there?
 

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  • JordanN
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    JordanN interpolator
    Brain drain maybe? If you already got skills, why not hop the border and work for the richest nation on earth? 

    Though relative to our population, I don't think we're lacking that much in studios. Montreal and Vancouver are always pumping out exciting AAA games, it's Toronto that seems to be a desert.

    Even more bizarre, Toronto is also the same city that has a million game art schools, so I wonder where these graduates are being sent to (unless they do a complete 180 and apply to all the local VFX/Animation houses here).
  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    ....uhhhh what? 

    Montreal is one of the largest game development hubs in the world right now. The lucrative tax breaks are attracting heavy hitters all the time. Off the top of my head I can think of:

    Ubisoft Montreal - one of the biggest AAA studios in the world with almost 4k people at that location alone.
    Eidos
    Warner Bros
    Bethesda
    EA Motive - which has also absorbed Bioware Montreal
    Square Enix
    Gameloft

    those would be larger developers, but there are also a ton of smaller studios like Red Barrels (the outlast game series) that are putting out super successful AA games and actually making a profit with a smaller team.

    Vancouver - while not as thriving as it once was, there is still a few large studios pumping out AAA games

    The Coalition - gears of war series new owners since gears 4
    EA Vancouver - a huge campus working on both large sports titles and the new home of EA's big new Star Wars Project
    Capcom Vancouver- home of the dead rising series
    Relic - a bit more niche but still definitely AAA

    Toronto - there are less big names here, but that would most likely be to the high cost of living and not having as crazy tax breaks as montreal. still plenty of opportunity if you are good.
    Rockstar
    Ubisoft Toronto - this studio is growing extremely fast, think i remember reading the goal is to double up to 800 ppl by 2020.


    To think there is a small number of opportunities in canada when a huge chunk of the industry is based here, is pretty crazy. Of course there are probably more overall studios in the United states, the population is 10x that of canada and they are spread out all over. Places like LA and austin are big dev hubs, similar in scale to Montreal.

    take a run through gamedev map and I bet you would be pretty surprised at the amount of gamedev studios/opportunities in canada. If you are good, you shouldn't have a hard time finding a job. The work visa/moving from abroad would be the biggest challenge I think.

    here is a direct quote from an older article on the subject:

    “Finding qualified and experienced workers in programming, game design, data analysis and artistic animation continues to be a challenge as our growth outpaces the domestic supply of talent. There is an opportunity for both industry and for government to find long-term solutions for developing digital skills in our workforce and shorter-term solutions to bring-in qualified workers from abroad to impart innovative techniques and skills.”
  • JunkieKong
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    JunkieKong greentooth
    lol damn dude if you think Canada has it bad, try finding a AAA job in Australia.
  • sacboi
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    sacboi high dynamic range
    ^ yep second that.
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