The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESCA) today released numbers claiming it is now the third-largest home to game developers, surpassing the U.K. and coming behind only the U.S. and Japan. A large reason for this occurrence is likely the generous tax breaks Canada offers its game companies on a provincial and federal level, something the U.K. has only recently been moving on.
“Both the Ontario and the federal governments have focused on digital media as being a core area, so it hasn’t really required a staff to go out and do broad lobbying. We’re able, actually, to go out and tell the government ‘Look you’re thinking of doing this, this is why this works even better’ and it just helps back up their strategies around that,” said Peter White, President of the London (Ontario) Economic Development Corporation to GamePolitics. “They can look and see that all three levels of government are involved in this process.”
A large part of the success may be attributed to the selflessness of the various interests in Canada – regional economic interests want game companies in their city or province, but they're happy just to get a company local. “It’s a team effort; we’re out promoting the region first and getting people interested in looking at Ontario, and once they decide that they are interested in Ontario, then it’s up to each of us as individual locations to promote the specific advantages we have for each of our cities,” explained White. “Anytime we can get a win in Ontario, it’s going to be beneficial for all of us. For instance, when the province worked with Ubisoft to have Ubisoft make their investment in Toronto that really helped the profile of us (Ontario) as a great site to be located. The province has done some great things in conjunction with the federal government to bring us down to the point where we are the lowest cost tax jurisdiction of all the G7 countries. On top of that, through both the provincial and federal governments we have outstanding programs around research and development.”
Another incentive for game companies is that the federal government of Canada doesn't look down on video games and game development the way some members of the U.S. and U.K. governments do. When asked about mandates similar to the U.K, game developer tax incentives that require only “culturally relevant” games to qualify, White responded, “We really don’t worry about what they are producing or the content.”
