While Canada is now the world’s third-largest home to videogame development, trailing only the U.S. and Japan, one Canadian province is feeling a bit ostracized.
Edmonton, Alberta is home to BioWare, but despite the successful developer’s presence, “the industry has basically stalled” in the region, states the Edmonton Journal, as “major video-game firms have opted to expand elsewhere, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on lavish studios and sprawling campuses.”
Canada’s game creators are increasingly concentrated in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto, areas “where growth has been fuelled by handsome tax credits and other forms of public support.”
Even BioWare seems more focused now on increasing staff at its Austin, Texas and Montreal locations.
The piece’s author offers:
If Alberta is really serious about building a more diversified economy, it needs to spend less time listening to policy wonks, economists and bureaucrats, and a lot more time finding ways to truly support its entrepreneurs, including its video-game developers.
|Photo from The Age|
Comments
Re: Alberta Feeling Left out Of Canada’s Advances
Love to go to Canada in the future...
So I will keep watch on developments of which province I'd decide to live in before I make that decision...
but still, where ever there is jobs that I can get into it does not matter where they are in Canada, a job is a job and I am all the better getting out of Australia and moving into Canada so I can get one step closer to getting the type of job I want and making the types of games I want to make in the future.
Re: Alberta Feeling Left out Of Canada’s Advances
There are plenty of things of interest in Alberta (Calgary Stampede, Banff, Lake Louise, Drumheller). There are very few things of interest in Edmonton.
If the video game industry wants to attract developers to Alberta they should try to sell Calgary as a destination rather than Edmonton. Calgary is more white collar, it's generally got a younger population, it's higher tech, it's the third-largest head office city in Canada, and it's closer to the mountains.
P.S. In the interests of full disclosure, I'm an ex-Calgarian.
Re: Alberta Feeling Left out Of Canada’s Advances
Good pic! However, that pic will never out-pic the May/Treanor butt slap! Saucy!
Re: Alberta Feeling Left out Of Canada’s Advances
This is because people ask themselves why they would want to be in Edmonton when you can be on the actual west coast with mild weather (Vancouver), or the enjoy the night-life city (Toronto)? Alberta has nothing to offer that other cities can.
Re: Alberta Feeling Left out Of Canada’s Advances
I think the major reason why this is the case is because there's nothing of interest in Alberta.