Quebec's Video Game Industry: Sixth Largest in the World

While at the Montreal International Game Summit I attended a conference held at the main stage where the Alliance numérique President, André D'Orsonnens, presented a benchmark study prepared by consulting firm SECOR-Taktik on the Quebec gaming industry.

The study found that Quebec now ranks sixth in the world with 4,400 developers in the province. Nearly 2,000 additional gaming jobs are also found in the province ranging from technology providers, creative services, production services and support services.

Japan is currently has the most developers employed in the games industry with 20,000, followed by California (11,500), South Korea (9,000), United Kingdom (8,300) and Washington State (5,000).

Quebec's largest video game companies include Ubisoft Montreal, EA Montreal, A2M, Eidos Montreal, Beenox, Ubisoft Quebec, and Frima Studio.

"Quebec actually ranks third when you consider the number of developers per thousand of inhabitants. It is then only outdone by British Columbia and Washington State," remarks André d’Orsonnens, President of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Druide Informatique, and President of the Board of Alliance numérique.

"The regions Quebec competes with most have also put in place industry support measures to attract companies as well as human and financial resources. We must keep a watch on the evolution of these measures and implement silimar ones compete with them, to ensure the continued growth of our industry," adds d’Orsonnens.

Alliance numérique's General Manager, Pierre Proulx, notes that three key measures must be put in place to ensure the Quebec gaming industry continues to grow:

- Qualified talent is getting scarce, so we need to promote the gaming industry to the younger generation so that they’ll make their careers in the province.

- Financing isn’t sufficient for original content creation, so we must put in place new financial incentives.

- Quebec's young companies don’t have the expertise and commercial resources to fully succeed; we need to offer them access to advisory services and adequate leadership.

To reach these objectives, the Alliance numérique feels that collaboration between the different levels of governments, financial institutions and the companies themselves is essential, and that the organization is committed to generating and maintaining that integration during the coming months.