CS250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Ubisoft, Distinctive Software, Yaletown
13 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
The Video Games Industry
Continued from last class...
● Players, producers, places
Creative economy = discourse/framework comprised of → creative industries, creative class,
and creative city
Places
● Industry incentives and skilled workers make Canada attractive location for game
companies, but industry has uneven geographic distribution
● Nearly 90% of game firms in Canada are in BC, Quebec, and Ont
● How does production of video games contribute to the transformation of space?
● Vancouver is oldest of Canada’s game clusters - started with company ‘Distinctive
Software’
● Many spinoff companies from these 2 companies → network
● Yaletown - warehouse district → gentrification paired with corporate consolidation
● Quebec has largest provincial game labour force → biggest is ubisoft → got 37% tax
discount on labour costs
● Toronto - prevalence of smaller companies→ lacking large employer, so they strike out
on their own
● Ontario began searching for foreign grown publisher → reached deal with ubisoft that
opened a toronto studio
● Highlights:
○ Extent of provincial govt participation in intercity competition for game jobs -
policies, investment partnerships
○ Productivity / economic impact - can measure thru real estate market
○ Mobile capital - mobility increases as talent pool in other countries expands
● Official narratives on video game production in canada puts little stock between game
content and national identity
● Source of national pride seems to be located outside of the games themselves
● From technological nationalism to talent nationalism → tendency to identify nations
power with cognitive/cultural __ capacity
Indie Game the movie
Viewing Questions:
1. What other films have you seen that provide a behind the scenes look at creative work?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Creative economy = discourse/framework comprised of creative industries, creative class, and creative city. Industry incentives and skilled workers make canada attractive location for game companies, but industry has uneven geographic distribution. Nearly 90% of game firms in canada are in bc, quebec, and ont. Vancouver is oldest of canada"s game clusters - started with company distinctive. Many spinoff companies from these 2 companies network (cid:3243)yaletown(cid:3244) - warehouse district gentrification paired with corporate consolidation. Quebec has largest provincial game labour force biggest is ubisoft got 37% tax discount on labour costs. Toronto - prevalence of smaller companies lacking large employer, so they strike out on their own. Ontario began searching for foreign grown publisher reached deal with ubisoft that opened a toronto studio. Extent of provincial govt participation in intercity competition for game jobs - policies, investment partnerships. Productivity / economic impact - can measure thru real estate market. Mobile capital - mobility increases as talent pool in other countries expands.
