Game Developer Research has compiled the results of its third annual Game Developer Census, tallying game development and publishing companies working in North America, revealing that the United States videogame industry employee count is essentially flat year-over-year, rising slightly from 44,400 to 44,806. More freely available information is available Game Developer Research website: http://www.gamedevresearch.com/. The report is intended to be a valuable tool for game industry trendwatchers, contractors, service companies, and other entities wanting to acquire accurate information to reach out to the North American game market as a whole. Purchase of the full report includes both a 247-page in-depth listing and numerical breakdown by U.S. state and Canadian province, and separate Excel spreadsheets featuring the full, comprehensive data set in sortable and exportable form.

The small rise in North American game industry employment was marked by an unusually high number of new studios — particularly in social and online gaming – springing up to counterbalance the many closures that occurred throughout the rest of the industry. Canadian companies, however, saw growth that can almost be called explosive. The continued establishment of new studios and expansion of existing large studios led the region’s employee count in the Census to rise 30 percent year-on-year. The totals — also boosted by additional Game Developer research on Canadian developers, with the help of local authorities — rose from 9,500 Canadian video game employees in 2008 to 12,480 in 2009. Much of the actual Canadian growth is due to the strengthening of the major development hubs in Vancouver and Montreal, as well as up-and-coming development centers like Toronto. By contrast, while U.S. states continue to maintain similar amounts of employees, anecdotal evidence indicates that American game development is becoming less clustered around urban centers.

In the United States, California remains the undisputed development heavyweight, with 20,815 developers (46 percent of the U.S. total) employed in the state. Washington is the second most-popular state for game employment, with over 4,500 employees, and Texas is third with over 2,600. Those rankings remain intact from last year. In total, eight states (California, Washington, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Florida, and Maryland) have more than 1,000 game professionals working in them, with North Carolina close behind. Maryland is a newcomer to that group this year, in part due to the expansion of state heavyweight ZeniMax Media, Bethesda’s parent company.

"We’re pleased to be debuting the latest Game Developer Census for North America," said Simon Carless, global brand director of the Think Services Game Group, including Game Developer Magazine and director of Game Developer Research. "The report offers a comprehensive snapshot of the financial health of the industry. For industry watchers, this is an essential document to discover the state of the games business."

Not included in the current Census estimate are game tools companies, game contracting/services companies, external PR, marketing, legal, and other business services, and liaison or licensing divisions at larger media companies. Game Developer Research putatively puts this figure at around 18,000 across North America.

The Census report lists more than 700 companies alphabetically by U.S. state and Canadian province, along with general contact addresses, website information, estimates of employee numbers and details on their market specialties (from casual gaming, online gaming, mobile gaming and serious gaming to PC, handheld or console gaming).

Purchase of the full report includes both a 247-page in-depth listing and numerical breakdown by U.S. state and Canadian province, and separate Excel spreadsheets featuring the full, comprehensive data set in sortable and exportable form.

For more freely available information, including sample data, or to purchase the complete Game Developer Census 2009 report, please visit the official Game Developer Research website: http://www.gamedevresearch.com/.

About the Think Services Game Group

A core provider of essential information to the professional game industry, the Think Services Game Group offers market-defining content, and drives community through its award winning lineup of print, online, event and research products and services. These include Game Developer Magazine, Game Developer Research, the Webby Award-winning Gamasutra.com, GameCareerGuide.com, WorldsInMotion.biz, GameSetWatch.com, GamesOnDeck.com, SeriousGamesSource.com, the Game Developers Conference®, the Game Developers Conference® Austin, the Game Developers Conference® Europe, the Game Developers Conference® China, GDC Mobile, the Game Career Seminars, the Independent Games Festival and Summit, and the Game Developers Choice Awards. To learn more, visit www.tsgamegroup.com

About Think Services, a division of United Business Media

Think Services connects specialized communities worldwide using educational events, consulting, training, certification, membership, and innovative media. Providing comprehensive opportunities for people to learn from, network with, and inspire each other, Think Services builds strong brands and works within communities to foster a unique affinity with its products and services. The division’s flagship products include the Game Developers Conference, the Webby Award-winning Gamasutra.com, Game Developer magazine, the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), and HDI. Think Services is a subsidiary of United Business Media (unitedbusinessmedia.com), a global media and marketing services company with a market capitalization of more than $1.6 billion. To learn more, visit www.think-services.com.

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.

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According toleading market research firm The NPD Group, Canadian first quarter retail sales of video game hardware, software and accessories dipped nearly 8.5 per cent year-over-year.  The figures represent the first-ever decline in sales since NPD first began tracking the category in 2002.

The portable hardware and console hardware categories showed the strongest declines at 21 and 14.5 per cent respectively for the January 31 to March 31, 2009 period.  The portable software and console software categories saw more modest declines of 1.5 and 7.5 per cent, while the accessories category exhibited a slight growth of three per cent.

“It may be tempting to attribute the decline in sales to the current state of the economy,” said Matthew Tattle, Group Manager, The NPD Group.  “However, on closer inspection, the first quarter of 2009 lacked the number of blockbuster titles that drove sales during the same period last year.  Guitar Hero and Rock Band experienced very strong sales in early 2008 while the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl helped bolster overall first quarter sales for the category.”

A new report from the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) shows Vancouver still the leading hub of the industry in terms of employee numbers.

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And because tax incentives in British Columbia pale when compared to those in Quebec, B.C. may slip into the No. 2 spot some time this year.

The survey, prepared by Hickling Arthurs Low Corporation, points to three major hubs — Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto — that account for almost all of the 14,000 jobs in the industry. British Columbia has 44 per cent of employees in the industry, with the Vancouver area’s 61 firms providing work for 5,842 employees and 42 per cent of Canada’s workforce. Quebec is second with 37 per cent of workers in Canada (32 per cent in Montreal), followed by Ontario, a distant third at 14 per cent.

You can access the whole list here. Here are the latest entries:

• Bioware Montreal
• Yu Centrik
• Di-O-Matic
• Anomalik
• Airborne Mobile
• Bug Tracker
• Quazal
• Xaracom
• Feeling Software
• Darwin Dimensions
• Babel Media
• NDi Kids
• Musitechnic

If I am missing some good ones, please let me know!

Sylvianne Pilon at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) has recently completed an interesting study that compares and contrasts the video game industries of Montreal, Lyon, and Los Angeles and discusses the role of culture.

Among the conclusions:

The main conclusion of this research is that cultural relativism of urban regions may act as centripetal forces toward anchor firms, create a favorable context to the emergence of industrial districts, and act in their evolution. I also proposed that the relative importance of economic location factors, such as agglomeration economies and knowledge externalities from the agglomeration of related industries (e.i. information technology, digital animation, film, musique, television), from the pool of skilled and creative workforce in art and technology (the most significant location factor conducing to value creation in video games), and from institutional infrastructures may be seen as products of urban regions cultural relativism. First, because the economic location factors emerged from urban regions historicity: a significant cultural feature. Second, the artisans of the urban region cultures act into the evolution of the relative importance of economic factors, and, therefore, in the evolutionary patterns of industrial districts.

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