VANCOUVER’S VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY AND THE SILVER LINING IN THINGS
If you happen to be living and working in Vancouver in the video game industry, consider yourself very lucky. Not only have you scored a sweet job that’s fun and challenging, but you’ve become part of the small business workforce in BC. Anyone moving to BC from other provinces will tell you how hard it is to score a “real” business/office job out in BC. BC is made up of primarily satellite offices of companies that have a base in Ontario or Quebec, American companies looking for a cheaper branch office, natural resource companies, and old folks homes. If you want to work at a forestry company or do a sales job, you’re set. But if you’re looking for a marketing or business-related job, you’re probably going to have a hard time. That’s where the high tech industry comes in.
The video game industry makes up a significant portion of the high tech industry that has boomed in Vancouver over the past 15 years (4000-5000 people estimated in Vancouver). Programmers, artists, and producers usually don’t have to look far for work. The video game industry in its heyday must have been something to see — limousines and champagne parties complete with strippers at E3 bashes, expensive company Christmas parties, big performance review bonuses, and skyrocketing salaries.
The industry looks very different today with the slumping economy. A number of studios in Vancouver have closed, or let go of dozens to hundreds of employees. Radical Entertainment has all but shut down, laying off around 100 employees. Projects have come to an end, and many game projects have been canceled. Around the world, other studios are being closed. Ensemble Studios is done, NCSoft plans to layoff more, Iron Lore closed, Midway laid off tons… the list goes on. Not only that, but stock prices for some companies are fractions of what they were last year or two years ago.
Experts around the world have been saying how the video game industry is recession proof. People like to sit at home and play videos games when there’s not much money in their wallet, and video games have good value for entertainment, compared to other mediums. Yet, we’re still seeing signs of slowdown. Video game sales in August increased the least they have in the past 2 years. We won’t be able to truly measure how the video game industry does until November or later, when fall sales start coming in and the holiday season starts heating up. Some analysts expect to see light video game sales this season.
The video industry is very incestuous, and like everyone else, I talk to lots of good friends at other studios. People seem generally frustrated at their stock price that they’ve banked on using for a mortgage downpayment… evaporated into thin air. Tons of friends have been asking me for jobs at my company lately. There’s a lot of good talent wandering the streets right now.
So a lot of doom and gloom, eh?
Realistically though, we’re very fortunate. Our industry hasn’t been hit as hard as other industries, namely auto makers. GM recently cut 800 jobs, and in the past has cut over 40,000 jobs in one year. It also seems that other companies are still looking to Vancouver to grow their business. That’s a great sign! Seattle-based Big Fish Games is opening a 4,500 sq foot studio in Vancouver, and I hear EA is going to open another Yaletown studio soon.
So what can you do?
Take a look at companies that are based outside of our economy. There are tons of companies based in Asia or other parts of the world that don’t seem to be as affected by our economic slowdown.
Be grateful for your job in the video game industry. We’re really lucky to have our jobs and all the perks that we do. Stop grumbling so much about how your job sucks!
Do a good job. Work hard. Be diligent about your tasks and try to do more if you can.
Better yourself. Are you improving your skills by staying up to date on what’s new in the industry? Remember there’s a whole batch of kids every 6 months wanting to take your job. Highlight and use your experience as much as possible to show others you are worth keeping around, and take some extras classes or online courses on the side to keep your skills up to date.
Help out your friends. Try to offer a lending hand to any buddies who are looking for work by getting them in at your studio.
Be positive!
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. I can’t wait to see what the video game industry does next.
Tags: BC, economy, job market, layoffs, studio openings, Vancouver, video game industry, video game jobs
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September 25th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
you have wisdom beyond your years.
September 25th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I think you’re pushing it a bit far to say that Radical has “all but shut down” – they only laid off ~30% of their workforce. While it does suck, it’s far from the end for them; there’s still 2 projects going and over 200 employees.
It’s still very, very hard to hire good senior (and above) talent even with the layoffs and closures that have happened, as they are always in high demand. We’ve been trying to hire for some (really desirable I must say) positions for quite a while, and it’s just draining interviewing people when you start to realize that it’s like finding a needle in a haystack and you’ll be doing an aweful lot of interviewing before you find the right candidate. And then every other company in the city wants to hire them too.
Makes me wish that I was just after money so I could quit my current job and start a bidding war between prospective employers.
What you say about “do a good job” and “better yourself” is very important, and a lot of job seekers should heed your advice.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Or start your own studio.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Good points all around, but I gotta contest the “new batch of kids every 6 months” bit a little. While sure, they may have been trained on the latest software and whiz-bang tools, they’re still a long way from giving a veteran with years of industry experience a major threat. It’s a bit like the “person A has lots of talent, but is an unknown on team environments. person B, not as talented, but has proven to work well with others and get the job done.” Person B will win just about every time, unless person A was insanely good and/or the project can afford to risk a possible “bad genius” on the team, or people on the inside can vouch for person A’s character/drive.
September 26th, 2008 at 7:55 am
It’s not all doom and gloom outside of Vancouver.
I don’t want to seem all ’slimy recruiter guy’ but for anyone interested, we are hiring for pretty much every position out here on the East coast in PEI. If you want to live on an island where you can actually afford to own a home (the average 3 bedroom home, with a yard costs $150k – seriously.) and have a job making character and story driven games on DS and console download – drop me a line at shane.neville@longtailstudios.com.
Good to see you blogging again Allie!
September 26th, 2008 at 8:18 am
You could never be ’slimy recruiter guy’, Shane… ‘job pimpage master’, sure. I can see that.
Glad you like the other coast; it’s not for me, but I’m sure others who place a higher value on affordable home ownership would seriously consider that move.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I’m really glad to see some debate and discussion here!
Richard — you’re totally right, I shouldn’t have said that Radical has all but shut down. It is things I’ve “heard” from various individuals around the industry, but you are right, they’ve still got a ton of people working on projects there and that’s not really fair to them.
Parveen — yeah that’s the ideal situation eh… owning your own business
*shakes fist at JJ and Curtis*
Mike — yes, industry experience is great, especially if you can position yourself in a “senior”/mentor/leadership role. But if you’re someone who is just working in the trenches, you might want to be concerned if there are kids out there who have more talent and hard skills coming out of school who don’t cost nearly as much
Shane — HEY! So glad to hear from you. Feel free to recruit on here whenever you like. I’m so excited about your PEI studio. I’ve heard a lot about it and there are a couple people I know who are moving out there. You KNOW I am jealous about the house prices out there. When you sent out that email about your house on the cliff I was very envious. Getting to work at a video game studio in PEI? LUCKY! Anyway, thanks for dropping by and commenting!
I’m with Richard on this one though, I don’t think I’d leave my fantastic snowboarding mountains on this coast
September 26th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Interesting points here- but from my perspective, 3D animation and VFX are the industries that will be the most hard hit in Vancouver.
3D animation is expensive to produce for tv, and with the slumping U.S. economy, high Canadian dollar, lack of competitive tax incentives and cuts to Canadian New Media fund- that’s bad news for Vancouver animators. But despite the slightly slower games sales last month, the growth rate was still 9% in the US, despite the fact that people are losing the shirts off their backs, and that far outstrips all other entertainment industries including film, tv and music.
So I wouldn’t start worrying too much yet- I think video games will be the sector that weathers the storm.
PS: love the new blog Allie!
September 27th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Excellent write up on the industry. Although I don’t work in the industry I have a few connections. The sentiment is upbeat for EA and some other big companies out there. The economy doesn’t impact them as much as other little companies or companies such as Midway that has lost its way in the biz. Remember the good old days of Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam
Also if you look at the stock prices, they have faired better then the other industries out there.
The Slowing US economy will hurt every sector in BC and Canada. The only reason we have survived thus far is because of all the Olympic construction going on. Whether you are for or against 2010 it has had a positive impact on Vancouver.
Nice to hear that EA is continuing to expand out here and that big fish is coming out here. There is an abundance of talent out here and the draw of Vancouver also lures in world-wide talent. The industry needs to be nurtured a little bit more before it can be a mainstay of our economy. I think the Libs are doing a decent job, however other provinces (especially Quebec) have offered tax incentives, hence why Ubisoft is in Montreal and not here.
I’ve rambled on long enough. This was an excellent write-up, vastly superior to the one I wrote a while back. First time visit to the site and I’ll be back daily!
September 29th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Yup, you’re totally right Urban Dweller. Thanks for stopping by, I love your site as well.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Allie, Thanks for the insight.
I remember thinking you were some fat old guy back when you were doing the relic gig, little did I know.,
Along w/other boneheads in the COH community, I even made fun of your nome de guerre.
But as I got to know you trough your work I have to say that my admiration grew.
Your dedication and commitment seemed above and unfitting your role.
I am glad you left relic and even more glad to hear you are doing great.
I could tell you that I’ve looked at your website and you seem like a fascinating and very observing person, but I like to be original and there is a 99.99 chance you’ve heard that a million times so I’m not going to say it.
Now the part about loving rifles intrigues me., I have a bit of trouble believing that being a gun Knut myself. I can honestly tell you I never met a woman that I felt genuinely loved weapons. But I do believe you.
As far as your posting on the video game industry I only wish I would have read it
5 years ago. But that would off course be impossible.
It seems like a very honest from the trenches assessment of the industry, I have been doing my homework so this is not an educated guess,
And even more unfortunately , the level of knowledge and technical proficiency you need to be competitive in a field like this I think is far beyond that witch would be required in many other fields, hell; I’ve had jobs were all I had to do was turn a damn knob,
If you know what I mean.
Unfortunately for me I am one of those kids that come out every six months to try and take your jobs (except I’m not a kid)
I can tell you that I have almost killed myself the last five years trying to achieve a level of proficiency that I felt comfortable applying for a job with, on top of my 15y+ experience in Photoshop And other graphic design tools.
And the closer I get to actually being at a level where I could even try to compete for a job like this, the further away it seems that it will ever actually materialize,
Making a reality check, were does that take me>? Well let’s see I’ve just about ruined my marriage, have spent ridiculous amounts of time glued to a computer screen for the past 5 years., and have just about gone blind (lol).
had I chosen more wisely, Given the amount of time and effort I have poured into this Endeavour I would probably be already working, and making a lot of money.
Well you know what they say Hind sight is 20/20.
On a good light, I have finally realized that game development, as much as I wanted it, is not really worth half the effort that it would take to get it.
Yes, it’s been 5 years and about 60k down the drain, but I feel there’s no such thing as too
Late
And I am glad there are honest people like you that can speak out and offer honest guidance where there is none.
October 30th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Wow thanks for all your kind words Mario, and the best of luck to you! It’s never to late to get into the video game industry.
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