Three Reasons Why The Canadian Videogame Industry Is Third Largest In The World

Did you know that next to the the ol’ US of A and Japan, Canada is third largest leading international player in the video game industry. With the country’s gaming sector generating billions of dollars per year in revenue, it’s no secret that Canada is quickly becoming the country of choice for publishers to open new development studios and to develop their latest and greatest games.

Did you also know that many of your favorite AAA-titles were developed in Canada? For example, The Assassin’s Creed series have been developed by Ubisoft Montreal. The upcoming Sleeping Dogs is being developed by Vancouver-based United Front Games. The award-winning Deus Ex: Human Revolution was developed by Eidos Montreal; and oh yeah most of the past Need For Speed games were developed in by EA in Vancouver.

Anyway, lets go onto the reasons shall we?

Reason 1: Many of the leading videogame companies can be found in Canada.

Don’t believe me? Let me list some of them out for you:

• Bioware (Mass Effect Series, Dragon Age II and expansions)
• Capcom Vancouver (Dead Rising 2, Dead Rising 2: Off The Record)
• EA Canadian Studios (FIFA, Need For Speed, NHL etc)
• Klei Entertainment (Shank, Shank 2, Mark Of The Ninja)
• Radical Entertainment (Scarface, Prototype 2, Incredible Hulk: UD)
• Rockstar Canadian Studios (The Warriors, Max Payne 3, Bully)
• Slant Six Games (Resident Evil: ORC, SOCOM: FB3/Tactical Strike)
• Ubisoft Canadian Studios (Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed, SC: Blacklist)
• United Front Games (ModNation Racers, Sleeping Dogs, LBP: Karting)

Reason 2: Canadian Videogame Industry makes BILLIONS of dollars of revenue per year.

For many years now, Canada has become one of the leading countries in the videogame industry. Generating more than $2 billion in revenue (including retail, DLC, etc.) And if you take into account that the videogame industry is part of the interactive media sector, then you’re looking at a country that’s home to more than 3,000 companies that generate $3.8 billion in revenue.

That’s a lot of cash; cash that’s going to stay in Canada.

Extra Note: Develop 100 (World’s Most Successful Game Studios) even featured a great number of Canadian developers in their latest list including Matt Rix, Hemisphere Games, Relic Entertainment, Chaotic Box, Other Ocean Interactive, and Big Stack Studios.

Reason 3: Canadian gaming industry employs a staggering number of people.

Like I mentioned earlier, there’s a great number of studios and companies developing interactive media in Canada with a collective employee/staff numbers that are more than 15,000+ people all over the country. That’s an amazing amount of people working in the industry. Companies are now realizing the wealth of talent to be found here and that’s why you’ll see a lot of companies investing resources and manpower in Canada.

More and more game studios are opening in the country; hell my own city is home to a number of independent game studios as well as an upcoming Microsoft Game Studios branch that’s working on a huge “hush-hush” title for the Xbox 360.

So next time you start playing your Assassin’s Creed or Mass Effect or NHL/FIFA, know that you’re playing the best games that Canada has to offer.

What are your favorite Canadian-developed games?

(Source 1: University of Alberta)
(Source 2: Develop 100)