Alliance numériQC hopes to take leadership role in province’s games sector

The Alliance numériQC is hoping to play a key role in organizing Quebec video game producers as it releases the results of an industry survey it commissioned on the subject. The report suggests that training and funding are the two key requirements to bolster the gaming sector in the province, something the Alliance has had extensive experience promoting in other multimedia sectors.The report, Le Québec: un joueur de calibre international de l’industrie du jeu interactif, was prepared by SECOR Conseil and gives considerable cause for cheer in the province’s nascent video game industry. Among other findings, the report says companies in Quebec enjoy creativity and quality of talent as assets, along with expertise with a range of products including games for PCs, consoles and wireless devices. But, say the report’s authors, there are considerable challenges to overcome."…Québec’s interactive games industry does have certain weaknesses, the most important of which include the lack of maturity of our companies that, combined with a limited access to capital, slows down our industry’s development. Our weaknesses also include the distances between Québec companies and the real decision-makers in the sector – the large American and European publishers. Moreover, even if the fact that we speak French is chiefly considered to be an asset, it can become a disadvantage when working in close collaboration with clients or teams who speak only English. Finally, the fact that Québec companies have a certain amount of difficulty accessing brands tends to curb their growth in the lucrative market of titled games under licence."The report makes 20 specific recommendations to help move Quebec’s video game industry into the big leagues, including increasing the industry’s visibility and communications, establishing support mechanisms for the development of prototypes, improving training, developing mechanisms to remain at the forefront of technological changes, making market and industry data accessible, increasing the industry’s participation and outreach activities abroad, and creating a steering committee on the industry’s development.At stake is a share of the worldwide gaming pie, estimated in the report to be worth about US$30 billion, with growth pegged at 9.3% for the 2000-2005 period.Alliance numériQC manager of commercialization Jean-François Arseneau says his organization is positioning itself to help achieve those goals."If we’re talking only about the developers, we have about 30 companies in Quebec. These companies are not very structured…," Arseneau tells Canadian NEW MEDIA. "What I mean by that is in the fall, when we did the study, we had a lot of consultations, meetings with people and all of that. It was the first time that the main companies were sitting at the same table and talking to each other. If we talk about the various groups that we have at the Alliance numériQC, like in e-learning and educational production, these groups of companies came to us saying we want to have our own group to deal with our own specific issues. The game companies – that didn’t come. So we took the initiative to try to mobilize them, to bring them to the same table so that they would deal with the issues for the collective development of the industry. The study was one way of doing that."Arseneau says the Alliance struck a gaming committee last fall and has proposed that it could act as the steering committee referred to in the SECOR report. He says most of the major companies in the sector have already made commitments to work with the Alliance in these areas. The first priority will be training, he says, working in cooperation with the province’s schools.Right now, the Alliance and industry aren’t asking for government help to develop new products or specifically on a proposed new prototype fund that would help companies develop their own titles. But, says Arseneau, it’s too soon to expect the province to take on that initiative since it will take time to digest the report and come to an understanding of how the industry works.He says recent noises from the provincial capital about cutting back on multimedia funding won’t stand in the way of eventually tapping provincial coffers for the proposed pool (CNM, Nov. 14/02)."When we look closely at what Pauline Marois was talking about in the fall – because of course we were looking at that closely – the only real thing that they said is that they’re limiting the infrastructure program, which is the buildings that are housing companies. They’re putting a limit on that. But in terms of tax incentives for the multimedia production, they’re not touching that."Besides helping the video game industry in Quebec become larger, that sector’s participation in the Alliance would likely have spin-off benefits to the organization’s members, Arseneau says."In terms of companies in Quebec … business model is fairly clear on how they can make money and survive in the long term. If they really take the time and look at what they really need, and we all work together to make it work and grow, the issues that will come out of it – which is a lot of times around the notion of how a company can generate more value for the company so it can fund itself and then be able to make original content – all of that logic and understanding of how it works will have an affect on the other groups we deal with, but with a particularity that is a group that in terms of business models and revenues that has a fairly clear model within multimedia where that aspect is not always very clear."

Alliance numériQC hopes to take leadership role in province’s games sector

News | 02/07/2003 5:00 am EST

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