Silicon Knights' Dyack Bemoans Ontario Brain Drain

Silicon Knights' Dyack Bemoans Ontario Brain Drain

November 21, 2007
Chasing government subsidies, game development talent is abandoning Ontario for neighboring Quebec, complains Denis Dyack. The outspoken head of Silicon Knights (Too Human) told Gamasutra:
Because all of our universities and colleges are subsidised by the government, what we're doing is training all of these people, educating them, and then they're leaving. We've got to stop that... Most people trained in Ontario would like to stay in Ontario, so let's start giving jobs to people here, let's keep it on Ontario and let's stop the brain-drain to Quebec...

Ubisoft has a major studio in Montreal, as do EA, A2M and other developers. Eidos is also opening an office there. Dyack continued:
The subsidies in Quebec are, well, insane... Once those subsidies stop, because they can't go on forever -- they've got like, 50, 60 percent of salaries covered, it's really cheap to make games there -- will those business stay there, or will they move out, as they're global and mobile?

It's costing the government a ton of money and the payback is uncertain. I think what our government needs to do is to make smaller steps, maybe not such extremes... I mean, video games is one of the fastest growing sectors in entertainment in the world, and we've got to do this kind of thing carefully.
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Submitted by CyberSkull - November 21, 2007 at 8:18 am -0500
Perhaps the local governments could offer tax incentives on housing purchases for high tech workers. Nothing keep a person there like a mortgage!
Submitted by Sammy - November 21, 2007 at 8:55 am -0500
haha, pissy because we make better games for cheap prices? go away ontario.
Submitted by Simon Roberts - November 21, 2007 at 9:52 am -0500
Nope, pissed because someday I want to develop video games without leaving the Ontario wine belt. I can't just leave behind my Kittling Ridge, yknow. How 'bout those Alouettes?
Submitted by Gerry Corcoran - November 21, 2007 at 9:57 am -0500
Dyack's completely right. I live in Ottawa, right beside the Quebec border and about two hours from Montreal. The city has an awesome game development community and that's great but it largely established there because it's being subsidized by the Quebec government. I think helping to establish an industry's presence in a city is a good thing but they've done that and now Quebec needs to stop paying for it. I can't imagine the government is making more than they're spending right now. Many provincial governments in Canada don't seem to understand that if the only way to keep an industry in your area is to pay them to do it, then either they're being greedy and would stick around if you didn't pay them or you aren't giving them enough of a reason to stay there. The game industry is growing exponentially. They should be able to hold their own.
Submitted by Jabrwock - November 21, 2007 at 11:06 am -0500
I can’t imagine the government is making more than they’re spending right now.

It depends on the support industries that benefit, how much they are spending to "subsidize", and how much tax revenue they get.

On another note, the UK is looking into filing a WTO complaint, complaining that Canada is unfairly subsidizing the game industry as a whole country, killing the growth of gaming companies over there.
Submitted by Malygris - November 21, 2007 at 11:42 am -0500
This is nothing new. The aerospace industry has experienced the same thing for decades. Quebec gets massive subsidies because it holds the rest of the country hostage with its "vive le Quebec libre" nonsense. And just as the games industry isn't the first to be heavily subsidized in Quebec at the expense of the rest of the country, you can bet it won't be the last.
Submitted by Geekwad - November 21, 2007 at 12:55 pm -0500
Sammy, grow up. I'm an anglophone sovereigntist because I believe the right to succession is essential for a free society. But, like most Ontarians, I love Quebec. The only rivalry that exists is that which is stirred up by political hacks with short-term agendas. Don't help them.
Submitted by Mathieu C. - November 21, 2007 at 1:22 pm -0500
The only real reason Dyak is pointing at Quebec is because it's right next to Ontario, but the fact of the matter is that provinces like BC and Alberta have also been luring game companies with tax break and subsidies just as much as Quebec.

Ontario is screwing the pooch on this issue because the successes that game developpers have been having in Quebec, BC and Alberta should make it a no brainer to implement this in Ontario. This would not only benefit the province, but the whole country.

FYI, I am from Ottawa. Also, I sincerly believe that Canada has become the country that produces the best video game in the world and we there's still plenty of room to get better. Soon enough, Japan and the US won't be able to touch us when it comes to video games.
Submitted by Simon Roberts - November 21, 2007 at 1:43 pm -0500
@Malygris: Well, yes and no... the big guns like EA are also flocking to Vancouver, presumably because it's close to Seattle and it's a pretty nice city. But they haven't got the tax credits out there. It's not so much a national kidnapping as it is a keen move by Quebec that the other provinces haven't picked up on. There shouldn't be a reason why Ontario or BC couldn't provide similar incentives. Aerospace is a little different because it's picking up government contracts; if Peter MacKay wanted to hire a gaming company to make something about the Canadian Armed Forces, then it'd probably make the cases more similar. But for now it's just a province-by-province problem.
Submitted by Ken - November 21, 2007 at 2:47 pm -0500
People in Quebec are morons. That's how they lost the Expos to Washington, and how the Canadiens have not won a Stanley Cup in 14 years.
Submitted by Jabrwock - November 21, 2007 at 4:37 pm -0500
@Ken

how the Canadiens have not won a Stanley Cup in 14 years.

I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that the US entered the hockey world by buying all the best Canadian players. And then followed up by buying up the best Euro and Russian players...

There's a reason you guys win the cup, but then lose horribly at the Olympics... ;)
Submitted by Vladmire Triskavanski - November 21, 2007 at 8:48 pm -0500
Jab, its cause of the French and those Russians.


And a yellow electic rat.
Submitted by jman571 - November 22, 2007 at 6:26 pm -0500
Heh, I live in Toronto, and I am familiar with at least Ubisoft, Montreal which has produced some of their best titles (Original Splinter Cell anyone?). But I honestly think we could use some studios here in TO. I have a lot of friends who are interested in game design going into university, and there's defenitely no lack of brains as the article states. So who should come? If it were up to me, I'd start a new studio, the article mentions several video game production giants but I think there's room for more homegrown companies, we have the talent, and the market, so when are we going to get our own gem to call our own?
Submitted by Le carnet à Michel»Archives » *proud proud* - November 27, 2007 at 9:09 am -0500
[...] http://gamepolitics.com/2007/11/21/silicon-knights-dyack-bemoans-ontario... [...]
Submitted by Jeff - November 27, 2007 at 11:25 am -0500
Dyack's a hack. If he just shut up an finished his game instead of constantly bitching about Unreal, Quebec, Sony and everything else we would have started playing Too Human last year. Too Human is becoming the next DN: Forever.
Submitted by d40ac79a0252 - May 10, 2008 at 8:35 am -0500
d40ac79a0252...

d40ac79a0252092ce4d9...

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