Videogame Industry
NYC Game Sector "Far From Assured"
Du : 15/05/2008
Around 30 game development companies reside in New York City, making the city a formidable industry player, but it still is significantly behind other game-friendly cities.
Center for an Urban Future, a New York City-based think tank, said (.pdf) that while New York has potential to become a leading hub within the games industry, it lags behind cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Montreal, Vancouver, Boston, Austin and Boston in the total number of game development houses.
"...Since industry leaders still don’t perceive New York as a major center for gaming, the city routinely loses talented workers—including many of those who graduate from gaming programs at the city’s universities—to firms in these and other cities," read the think tank's report, Getting In the Game.
But that doesn't mean that New York's development scene hasn't grown in recent years. The report said that as recently as five years ago, the number of New York City game development companies could be "counted on one hand." Now there are over 30 development houses and an additional 55 that are involved in some aspect of the industry, such as sound or distribution.
In New York's five boroughs, there are around 1,200 employees, the report said, working for companies including Take-Two and its subsidiaries, Atari, Kaos Studios, Arkadium Games, Gamelab and others.
Large Animal Games' Wade Tinney said in the report, “I can remember going out to the Game Developers Conference The first two or three years we went out there, whenever I would meet someone and give them my card, they would see that I was from New York, and say: ‘I didn’t even know there were game companies there. That’s definitely changed...'"
But New York is still missing some of the biggest of the big, such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.
The challenges for games companies in New York City, according to Center for an Urban Future's survey, primarily include high costs and overhead, lack of critical mass/strong tech community and lack of talent/cost of salaries.
"New York undoubtedly has the potential to build on its recent gains and establish a larger videogame industry," read the report. "Doing so would help the city diversify its economy and create good-paying jobs in one of the nation’s most promising sectors.
"But as this study demonstrates, the growth of the city’s videogame sector is far from assured."
Center for an Urban Future, a New York City-based think tank, said (.pdf) that while New York has potential to become a leading hub within the games industry, it lags behind cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Montreal, Vancouver, Boston, Austin and Boston in the total number of game development houses.
"...Since industry leaders still don’t perceive New York as a major center for gaming, the city routinely loses talented workers—including many of those who graduate from gaming programs at the city’s universities—to firms in these and other cities," read the think tank's report, Getting In the Game.
But that doesn't mean that New York's development scene hasn't grown in recent years. The report said that as recently as five years ago, the number of New York City game development companies could be "counted on one hand." Now there are over 30 development houses and an additional 55 that are involved in some aspect of the industry, such as sound or distribution.
In New York's five boroughs, there are around 1,200 employees, the report said, working for companies including Take-Two and its subsidiaries, Atari, Kaos Studios, Arkadium Games, Gamelab and others.
Large Animal Games' Wade Tinney said in the report, “I can remember going out to the Game Developers Conference The first two or three years we went out there, whenever I would meet someone and give them my card, they would see that I was from New York, and say: ‘I didn’t even know there were game companies there. That’s definitely changed...'"
But New York is still missing some of the biggest of the big, such as Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.
The challenges for games companies in New York City, according to Center for an Urban Future's survey, primarily include high costs and overhead, lack of critical mass/strong tech community and lack of talent/cost of salaries.
"New York undoubtedly has the potential to build on its recent gains and establish a larger videogame industry," read the report. "Doing so would help the city diversify its economy and create good-paying jobs in one of the nation’s most promising sectors.
"But as this study demonstrates, the growth of the city’s videogame sector is far from assured."