Why there isn't enough good gaming companies in Canada?
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?
Is Gaming industry in Canada is not well formed or why less AAA companies there?
Replies
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).
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.”