Facts & Research: Research

The entertainment software industry has created thousands of skilled Canadian jobs in the development, publishing, distribution and sales of video games. Many of the worlds best-selling games have been developed right here in Canada.

ESAC has commissioned two white papers that provide a descriptive and detailed picture of the entertainment software industry:

Entertainment Software: The Industry in Canada (2007)

Canada’s Entertainment Software Industry 2008: The Opportunities and Challenges of a Growing Industry

From that study:

Canada’s video game industry employs approximately 14,000 people across the country, and in virtually every province.

Geographically, much of Canada’s entertainment software industry is remarkably concentrated in three urban regions: Vancouver, Montreal and the Greater Toronto Area. These three primary and seven secondary clusters across eight provinces in Canada represent 94% of total employment.

Several factors contribute to Canada’s global success: The country’s long standing commitment to investing in higher education that supports a highly skilled talent pool, provincial government support for the industry, and the fact that there is a Canadian cultural element to producing successful entertainment software.

The entertainment software industry in Canada is export-intensive. Fifty per cent of firms rely on exports for 90-100% of their revenues, much of which comes from the United States.