BETA| CANADA FOCUS


Ubisoft Toronto and Montreal CEO Yannis


Mallat explains: “In recent years, we’ve seen that consumers purchase fewer blockbusters and are more inclined to purchase the most complete game experience that they can find. This has affected the entire global industry, and it would be false to pretend that Montreal has not felt its effect. Nonetheless, I am very proud of the studio’s performance.”


We have seen a decrease in volumes


this year but these are not only driven by economics but also changing


market trends. Yan Cyr, Enzyme Labs


Ubisoft Vancouver managing director


Alastair Jarvis, HB Studios (top), Alexandra Beaulieu, Beenox (middle), Richard Leinfellner, Babel (above)


Bertrand Helias feels the same, adding: “Consumers purchase fewer blockbusters and invest more to ensure a more complete gaming experience.” Xona lead programmer Jason


Doucette sums up the problems that are currently facing the global industry: “Games in their nature are luxury, and luxuries are usually the first to go when money is tight. So any economic change is going to be felt by any video game studio.”


26 | NOVEMBER 2011


TIMES ARE CHANGING The rise of cheap mobile gaming and the tightening of purse strings has meant that developers and publishers are now having to deal with a two sided attack on the industry. QA provider Enzyme Labs’ CEO Yan Cyr


says: “We have seen a decrease in volumes this year but these are not only driven by economics but also changing trends in the market. We are seeing a shift towards free- to-play games, social games and mobile which has grown a lot in the last year.” However Helias says his Ubisoft studio, like


others, is trying to adapt to these changing trends in customer behaviour by trying to offer more from their business and games. “To better answer the market’s demands,


we reevaluated our structure and established stronger and more flexible teams by building on our existing expertise.” This re-evaluation means that the


Vancouver studio now concentrates its efforts on developing assets for games made at other Ubisoft studios, such as Reflection’s Driver: San Franciso, rather than on creating its own IP. As well as a changing global market, Canadian studios have to deal with the economic problems from their southern neighbours in the US, who are struggling with a crippling debt and lack of market confidence causing a fluctuation of


the US dollar exchange rate. Frima CEO Steve


Couture says that


STATES OF PLAY: BRITISH COLUMBIA


British Columbia has long been a Canadian development hotspot, but recently stepped up plans to attract studios by introducing the BC Interactive Digital Media tax credit. But Koolhaus president Wolfgang Hamann says it is not the tax incentives that encouraged him to start up the studio in Vancouver, but because of the area and its other benefits. “The primary reason for setting up in


Vancouver was the amount of talent here. Not the tax breaks as these only arrived in British Columbia last year and Koolhaus has been going for over six years. The tax breaks are also much lower than in other provinces.” The Centre for Digital Media, located


near Downtown Vacouver, is one of the academic institutions to have set up here. Director of industry relations Denis Chenard says that, after the Government was lobbied by the local industry asking for a new program to create skilled producers and directors, the provincial government responded in 2006 with $40.5 million funding to get the program started. In less than a year the campus opened its doors to the first class of its Masters of Digital Media program. Chenard says that as part of the MDM curriculum, students work closely with game companies such as EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft and Zynga in providing the local industry with well trained talent. Construction is currently underway on a


new centre to open in September 2012 to further expand Vancouver’s talent base and help cement it as a key region in Canada’s ever growing industry.


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