NY to Hold Panel on Improving State's Game Development

[roseofbattle]

NY to Hold Panel on Improving State's Game Development

Lagging behind California and Texas, NY-based game developers hope to catch up.

New York is in the top five states in game industry employment, but still lags behind powerhouses like California, Texas, and Washington. Senator Martin J. Golden and NYU Polytechnic have organized panel discussions and roundtables for the New York government representatives can hear from 25 different people in the industry. The two panel presentations will take place Friday, Sept. 20.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick, owner of Rockstar Games with a headquarters in New York City, is one industry leader included in the discussions. MTV Digital executive producer Tom Akel, Games for Change copresident Asi Burak, and Kickstarter community head Cindy Au will also be attending. New York-based developers such as Avalanche Studios and Vicarious Visions will represent the local game development scene.

"The gaming software industry is large and growing, and New York State can claim an increasing share for our citizens," Golden said in a statement. "At present, New York State lags behind California, Texas, and Washington in the number of companies, employees, and contribution to the economy. We have about one-tenth the number of game software employees as California and one-tenth of California's gaming software's contribution of $2.16 billion to the state economy."

The roundtable, titled "Growing Computer and Video Game Development in New York," will discuss how the state can grow its digital games industry to either match or exceed the film industry.

Golden added, "When companies and gaming entrepreneurs think of gaming software, we want them to think of New York State."

Source: GameSpot [http://www.gamespot.com/news/new-york-aiming-to-grow-its-development-scene-6414584]

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[Alufear]

PLEASE more career opportunities in the game industry in New York State. I got a bachelor's in 3D Digital Graphics and the closest jobs to where I live are in NYC or CANADA.

 

[aelreth]

PLEASE more career opportunities in the game industry in New York State. I got a bachelor's in 3D Digital Graphics and the closest jobs to where I live are in NYC or CANADA.

Buy a car and move. It's expensive to do business in NYC. In comparison to Canada, it's robbery.

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/montreal/new-york-city

 

[Dr.Awkward]

PLEASE more career opportunities in the game industry in New York State. I got a bachelor's in 3D Digital Graphics and the closest jobs to where I live are in NYC or CANADA.

Buy a car and move. It's expensive to do business in NYC. In comparison to Canada, it's robbery.

http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/montreal/new-york-city

Pretty much this. If they want to do it right, they SHOULD NOT promote NYC at all, or any of its neighboring cities, but small places out on mainland NY such as Urbana, New Albany, and maybe even Buffalo.

In fact, I'd say it's where game development companies really need to expand into instead of the usual placement of some metropolis with a high cost of living and perhaps even higher crime rates - Go somewhere that really needs the high-tech, high-talent jobs, has a low cost of living, and current jobs barely use the skills of college graduates!

And before anyone says it... Yes. That means looking into the lands described as "Rural" for opening up a development studio, which are fabled to be all-out backwards both culturally and technologically. And if and when you do, perhaps you'll realize how mindsets like what we saw from Adam Orth and Don Mattrick are much more issue-laden when not in a city or suburb.