Artech Studios celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2007 – and the Ottawa company had many reasons to celebrate. With over 250 games on all formats, Artech's clients include Hasbro, Disney, Atari, THQ, Warner Brothers, Sony, Intel and Infogrames. Awarded Game of the Year twice by Billboard, Artech has also earned five Gold and Platinum awards for million-selling titles. What has made this small company so successful? "Ontario is just a great place to make games," says director Paul Butler. "We've got awesome technical and artistic talent thanks to our universities and colleges, great R&D tax credits, low business costs and an enviable quality of life that keeps us here."
When video game giant Capcom established its first development and production facility outside Japan, it chose the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). That's because the GTA has everything the industry leader needs. "Toronto is a centre for the North American entertainment industry," says Midori Yuasa, president of Capcom Interactive. "It gives us access to a seemingly endless supply of young, talented, entertainment-savvy people, thanks to its colleges and universities. Ontario also offers relatively low business costs, exceptional R&D tax credits that you can't find anywhere else in the world and helpful economic development people to facilitate all aspects of business start-up." Capcom's GTA facility, which opened in June 2006, is currently producing games for the mobile market, including traditional handsets and advanced smartphone devices.
For the Yokohama, Japan-based company Koei, worldwide game developer and publisher, choosing a site for its overseas production facility came down to one thing: talent. So the company headed straight for Toronto. "Toronto is famous for its computer graphics and gaming talent," says Toshio Otake, Koei Canada's vice president. "The fact that it's so multicultural is also an advantage when, like us, you're developing games for the world market." Adding to Toronto's attraction: costs are reasonable, the city offers access to both the North American and European markets and a lifestyle Koei's Japanese and Canadian staff enjoy. And transferring key staff from Japan has also proved to be easy. Koei Canada set up shop in 2001, expanded in 2005 and has plans for future growth following the release of its first in-house productions in 2007.
Digital game developers who want to achieve feature film quality don't need to look any further than Side Effects Software. For the past 20 years the Toronto-based company has been producing its award-winning Houdini 3D software for clients that include Sony Pictures Imageworks, Disney Feature Animation, Digital Domain, C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures and Framestore-CFC. It's so leading edge that the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences has twice honoured it for its contribution to "the art and science of making motion pictures. Side Effects continues to expand its market and is working with Garage Games to provide independent game developers with affordable high-end tools. "We're constantly pushing the envelope," says president, Kim Davidson. "And it's thanks to the exceptional programming talent coming out of Ontario's universities, amazing R&D tax credits and access to a strong computer gaming community in Toronto."
For more information about Digital Gaming in Ontario, visit Interactive Ontario
