The first Canadian Videogame Awards were handed out in Vancouver this evening, with Dragon Age: Origins from Electronic Arts/BioWare taking home two awards, including Canadian Game of the Year. Assassin’s Creed II received a total of three awards and the other winners included Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes and Dawn of War II among others.

"This first event was an excellent showcase of the amazing talent of our videogame developers in Canada," said Michael Bidu, President of DigiBC. "Interactive entertainment is one of our country’s leading industries where we are clearly world-renowned, and this world-class event was a fitting way to showcase to the globe the great work done in Canadian studios coast to coast."

"The awards punctuated what many of us already know; that Canada is home to some of the biggest and most amazing games on the planet," said Victor Lucas, host of Electric Playground and one of the award event organizers. "We look forward to a bigger and even better show next year to celebrate the kick-ass work of our industry."

A 30-minute special on the Canadian Videogame Awards is scheduled to premiere on G4 Canada on May 16. Sponsors of the 2010 Awards included G4, XBOX 360, Sony PlayStation, and The Georgia Straight.

Here is the full list of all the winners and nominees from the inaugural event:

Game of the Year – Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts/BioWare)

   -   Assassin’s Creed II
   -   Dawn of War II
   -   Dragon Age: Origins
   -   FIFA 10
   -   Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes

   Best Console – Assassin’s Creed II (UbiSoft Montreal)

   -   Assassin’s Creed II
   -   Dawn of War II
   -   FIFA 10
   -   NHL 10
   -   Prototype

   Best Handheld Game – Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes (Capybara Games)

   -   Battle of Giants: Dragons
   -   LEGO Battles
   -   Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes
   -   MySims Racing
   -   Pandemica

   Best Downloadable Game – Critter Crunch (Capybara Games)

   -   Critter Crunch
   -   Implode!
   -   Osmos
   -   Pandemica
   -   Super Monkey Ball 2

   Best Audio – Dawn of War II (THQ/Relic)

   -   Assassin’s Creed II
   -   Dawn of War II
   -   Dragon Age: Origins
   -   Skate 2
   -   WET

   Best Game Design – Assassin’s Creed II (UbiSoft Montreal)

   -   Assassin’s Creed II
   -   Dawn of War II
   -   Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes
   -   NHL 10
   -   Prototype

   Best Technology – Prototype (Radical Entertainment) & Assassin’s Creed II
   (UbiSoft Montreal)

   -   Assassin’s Creed II
   -   FIFA 10
   -   Fight Night: Round 4
   -   Prototype
   -   Skate 2

   Best Visual Arts – Assassin’s Creed II (UbiSoft Montreal)

   -   Academy of Champions: Soccer
   -   Assassin’s Creed II
   -   Dragon Age: Origins
   -   Fight Night: Round 4
   -   Punch-Out!!

   Best Writing – Dragon Age: Origins (Electronic Arts/BioWare)

   -   Assassin’s Creed II
   -   Dawn of War II
   -   Dragon Age: Origins
   -   Prototype
   -   WET

   In-Game Cinematic – Ghostbusters: The Video Game Cinematics (Rainmaker)

   -   Ghostbusters: The Video Game Cinematics
   -   LEGO Battles
   -   NBA Live 10
   -   Prototype Web of Intrigue

   Most Promising Game – ModNation Racer (United Front Games)

   -   Dead Rising 2
   -   Deus Ex: Human Revolution
   -   ModNation Racers
   -   Need for Speed World
   -   TRON: Evolution

 

Read the full pres release on CNW.

From Gamasutra:

The organizers of next month’s GDC Canada event in Vancouver are offering free Main Conference passes to Canadian game developers laid off in the last twelve months to help them return to the game industry.

Continuing a similar program conducted during GDC Canada 2009, and recognizing the toll the recession has taken on elements of the mainstream video game industry, a special page on the GDC Canada website details the offer’s specifics.

To qualify, prospective attendees must have been laid off from a Canadian video game or creative/digital arts company within the past 12 months, not be currently full-time employed, and provide their Canadian Record of Employment document at GDC Canada onsite registration to validate your status.

They will also need to pre-register now for the May 6th-7th event at the Vancouver Convention Center by following the instructions on the GDC Canada page devoted to the subject. Only a limited amount of these passes are available.

[…]

Read the full article on Gamasutra…

Anyone from Montreal going this year?

Another big publisher has made the move to open a dev base in subsidy-supported Quebec, Canada – with THQ  the latest to establish a Montreal studio. The Canadian studio will become the biggest among THQ’s studios, which employ about 1,200 people. Other game companies who got tax breaks in Quebec to hire lots of game developers include Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Eidos, Funcom and Activision Blizzard. Ubisoft also scored 263 million in Canadian dollar subsidies from the Ontario government over a 10-year period in exchange for creating a huge game studio in Toronto. Ubisoft’s Montreal studio has created big hits such as this year’s Assassin’s Creed II.

Smaller game companies are also getting funds. Steve Bocska, founder of Pugpharm in Vancouver, Canada, started his company in 2008. His team of nine is creating Snoget, an online social networking game that requires you to find and communicate with people who have similar interests to you.

The company received funding from the Canadian government’s National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program. It also got funding from Telefilm’s Canada New Media Fund, another government entity. The money adds up to about 75 percent of all of the company’s funding, and the remainder is eligible for tax credits. All of his British Columbia investors get a 30 percent personal tax rebate on the amount of their investment.

Source

Canada added 79,000 jobs last month as the country’s unemployment rate dipped 0.1 percentage points to 8.5 per cent.

Statistics Canada said Friday that full-time employment increased by 39,000 in November, the third consecutive monthly increase, while part-time employment grew by 40,000, following two months of declines.

The job growth far surpassed the consensus expectations of economists, who had been projecting the creation of 15,000 jobs, and for the unemployment rate to rise to 8.7 per cent.

…

In Quebec, employment grew by 21,000 in November, pushing the province’s unemployment rate down 0.4 percentage points to 8.1 per cent.

Source

Hopefully Canadian game companies are responsible for a part of those new jobs.

What about you, have you recently started a new job in Montreal?

The call for submissions to present content for lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2010 Game Developers Conference® Canada (GDC Canada) is now open through midnight, Tuesday, January 5, 2010. GDC Canada serves as a nexus point for established and promising young studios to learn best practices for developing new global titles and understanding emerging digital distribution models. The second annual GDC Canada is presented by Reboot Communications and Think Services, the organizers of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference. GDC Canada 2010 will return to the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC from May 6-7, 2010.

…

The session formats for this year’s content include 25 and 60 minute lectures, panels, and roundtables. The GDC Canada advisory board will rate sessions based on the criteria of concept, depth, organization, credentials and takeaway. The topics for this year include:

• Business/Production
• Digital Distribution
• Game Design
• iPhone Games
• Programming
• Social and Casual Games
• Visual Arts

Source

Develop: Québec Focus

Famous for its French-speaking populace, the large Canadian province of Québec is located in the east of the territory adjacent to the vast expanse that is the Hudson Bay.

In a country renowned for recognising and supporting the games industry it hosts, Québec stands out as perhaps the most forward thinking province, and as a result has become home to numerous studios, publishers and tech companies.

Combining the roles of a financial institution and economic development agency, Investissement Québec is one of the key organisations that assists those running or establishing a games company in the area. As well as promoting Québec as a prime location for investment, the body prospects foreign investment, and offers support services to international subsidiaries in the state.

Source

 

Develop: Ubisoft Montreal

Ubisoft Montreal is effectively the daddy of all games studios – not just in Canada, but globally, given its huge size and stature.

One of the largest production houses in the world, it is similarly famous for some of the publisher’s biggest hits – including the likes of Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia and Assassin’s Creed.

Develop spoke to CEO Yannis Mallat, who since 2006 has overseen the team’s huge expansion – plus Ubisoft’s growth into other Canadian territories, and its many collaborations with educators in the region – to find
out more…

Source

Good news for Montreal iPhone game developers, if you don’t already have one with Rogers!

Bell and Telus have reached agreements to sell Apple’s iPhone in Canada this November.

The iPhone addition was long rumoured to be a part of the next-generation high-speed network that the two companies have been building together.

Late Monday, the two companies announced that the network, originally expected to be ready in time for the Winter Olympics in February, would be ready months ahead of schedule.

The new network will offer mobile internet speeds up to 21 megabits per second, with more than 20,000 towns and cities covered, they said.

On Tuesday, both Bell and Telus confirmed they would begin selling the popular iPhone as early as November as part of the new network.

The Toronto, Ontario-based McLuhan Festival of the Future announced the launch of this year’s The Vortex Competition, which revolves around aspiring game entrepreneurs and companies across Canada.

A judging panel will review submitted concepts and prototypes of games in two respective categories. The competition, now in its fifth year and open to entrants across Canada, will take place on November 4 and 5. Judges for Vortex 2009 include software entrepreneur and star of the TV show Shark Tank Kevin O’Leary, Ubisoft Canada CEO Yannis Mallat, GameTap founder Blake Lewin, and game columnist and TV personality Marc Saltzman.

"We have a very big hub of video game developers involved in the competition," said Val Dooley, founder of Toots Capital in a phone call. She’s helping organize the competition, which has strong representation from major Canadian cities Montreal, Vancouver, and Toronto. "Some of the people [in past Vortex Competitions] have developed companies that are very successful," she added.