Saving B.C.’s Digital Gaming Industry

The B.C. digital gaming industry has been hijacked by Central Canada money and left gasping for breath in Vancouver. An industry veteran is trying to fight back through politics. The recent closure of Vancouver gaming icon Radical Entertainment has spurred some radical action of its own. Matt Toner, a well-known developer, teacher and advocate in the city’s once-booming digital games industry, has thrown himself into politics in an attempt to stop the downward slide in the industry.

Electronic Arts, BC | BCBusiness
Electronic Arts, which was responsible for the growth of digital gaming in the city, is now a mere shadow of itself.

The B.C. digital gaming industry has been hijacked by Central Canada money and left gasping for breath in Vancouver. An industry veteran is trying to fight back through politics.

The recent closure of Vancouver gaming icon Radical Entertainment has spurred some radical action of its own. Matt Toner, a well-known developer, teacher and advocate in the city’s once-booming digital games industry, has thrown himself into politics in an attempt to stop the downward slide in the industry.

Toner is running a “test” to see if the city’s generally apolitical digital-tech community can organize itself to influence government policy. He’s actively soliciting people to join the cause at the Can We Do It website to prove to the politicians that the digital and creative communities should have a voice in some of the government decisions that affect them.

It appears that in essence, he’s trying to gauge support for a run at nomination for the upcoming election in the riding of Vancouver-False Creek.

Toner is highlighting a situation I’ve been railing about for some time; namely, that the city’s digital games industry is being hollowed out by a combination of subsidy wars and political apathy.

We once thought of ourselves as games-development central and politicians loved to stage photo ops at Electronic Arts or some other game studio to bask in the warm glow of an industry that generated millions of dollars and employed hundreds, if not thousands.

But that’s rapidly disappearing. Electronic Arts, which was responsible for the growth of digital gaming in the city, is now a mere shadow of itself. Radical, one of the first spin-offs from the Electronic Arts orbit, was shut down on June 28, resulting in the layoffs of 89 workers.

What’s the reason for the fade in our once proud games’ industry? In a word: subsidies.

B.C. has for some time provided some subsidies to the industry, primarily in the form of support for labour costs. For years, Toronto and Montreal envied the West Coast industry and wanted a piece of the action. So Ontario and Quebec governments launched even more powerful subsidies to bring games-makers to their cities.

The result is obvious. Today, Montreal is Canada’s leading games production centre; Toronto isn’t far behind. Both subsidize as much as 36 per cent of labour costs on games, and add on other subsidies to entice the global games companies to their cities. Now they’re doing the same thing with other digital media.

The proof is also obvious. This year, the Canada Media Fund awarded $14 million in seed capital to digital developers. One company in Vancouver got a piece. The rest all went to Ontario or Quebec.

I’m not sure what influence Toner can have on the subsidy situation, but it would be interesting to find out, if only because we’ve seen these kinds of inter-provincial economic wars and government interference in economic systems for most of our history. It’s become a kind of running movie with a storyline that has new industries develop in B.C., only to be hijacked with big money from Central Canada and Ottawa.

If electing an advocate for the creative industry is the first step to fighting back, then I’m all for it. We have to do something.