Microsoft announced late last week that it would be opening a new game stuio in Vancouver. The awesomely named Black Tusk will be located in downtown and will help in recovering jobs and talent that have seen better days as studios have closed down or moved away from the Canadian city. The studio has actually been active for a year in the Yaletown district and was brought out of stealth mode for the announcement.
Black Tusk has 50 employees including experienced employees like former Electronic Arts employee, Mike Crump, who is the studio manager. This is not Microsoft’s first venture in to British Columbia and the video game industry of the region. Last year the maker of Windows stated that it would be setting up a new games studio in Victoria.
Crump commented on Microsoft’s interest in the area by saying, “It’s really a demonstration of Microsoft’s commitment to building new IP and expanding its portfolio of franchises. Our mission is to bring Microsoft’s next big entertainment franchise here in Vancouver.”
The Vancouver video game industry has seen studio’s leave for other cities within Ontario and Quebec because of favorable subsidies and tax incentives. This has left many industry workers out of jobs or with the difficult choice of relocating. Ubisoft Entertainment is a big name studio that shut down its Vancouver location in the early part of the year. Another major player, Activision-Blizzard, cut its Vancouver subsidiary during the past summer. Rockstar Games also moved out of the city to Ontario.
The British Columbia government tried to bring life back to the failing video game industry with the Digital Media Tax Credit in 2010 which offered a 17.5% tax break. The province was outdone by Ontario and Quebec because of their 30% and 40% tax breaks for digital media companies.
The decision by Microsoft to setup shop in Vancouver had nothing to do with tax benefits according to Crump. He says that, “The disparity in support between BC and Quebec and Ontario is definitely a challenge. It’s something we’re engaging with with local and provincial governments, but it doesn’t change for us the commitment we have to invest in Vancouver and Victoria … We want to make sure that Vancouver and B.C. generally realizes its potential as a hub and a hotbed of game development in Canada, so it’s something that’s important to us for sure, we want to see a strong industry here that goes beyond just Microsoft.”
Crump was tight lipped about what games would be developed in the studio but added that, “It’s a big game, so it will be a longer development cycle, but you won’t expect to see anything announced anytime in the next few months for sure. While I can’t talk about platforms, I can tell you it’s for the Microsoft Xbox ecosystem, but I can’t tell you much more than that in terms of platform. I can tell you that regardless of whether we’re talking about current generation or next generation or whatever, we see a convergence of game and film happening right across the board and that’s really exciting for us when we think about the level of emotional engagement that we can get with AAA games going forward, particularly around believable characters. It just allows for a much deeper emotional engagement than you’ve seen before.”
Source: Financial Post
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