Game developers team up with NMBA

The member companies of the Game Developers Association of Ontario are now card-carrying members of the province’s broader new media industry trade organization under an agreement announced last week. "Basically all the members of that association have joined the New Media Business Alliance, and we’ve agreed that we will flow all of the things that we’re working on into the centre so that we can all make use of the infrastructure we have," says Ian Kelso, president of the alliance. In total, the firms making up the GDAO account for more than 500 jobs in the province. While Kelso says the organization will continue to exist on paper, sparing the paperwork and time involved in formally merging the two bodies, GDAO members will be accorded full membership in the NMBA, as well as form the core of the alliance’s game industry endeavours. "All issues, policy and program stuff is going to flow into the NMBA, because those guys will basically be leading our game industry committee," Kelso says. He hopes to add four of the game industry committee members to the alliance’s board of directors, and also expand the size of the board beyond the current nine members to include more representation from other new media industries. Since its founding in 2001, the NMBA’s membership has largely been dominated by producers involved in broadcast convergence projects. "Then NMBA started shifting and changing, and we started getting more from mobile game companies and we started getting some casual game people involved, and we started getting a wider variety of different types of production content genres and formats," says Kelso. "We became more multilateral." The GDAO, meanwhile, has obviously always focused on video game development, but didn’t have a competency in advocacy and industry-building in the way that the NMBA does. " necessarily want to be…trying to track down politicians and lobby and try to set up programs and services as an organization," Kelso says, explaining the advantages membership in the business alliance afford the group. "I think they really wanted to get back to tending their businesses and making great products." And while many of Ontario’s game developers belong to regional chapters of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), that group also fulfilled a different role for members of the gaming community, meaning virtually no overlap between the respective mandates of the IGDA and the NMBA. "I don’t see any kind of conflict between the programming they do and our programming," Kelso says. "They’re a professional organization whereas we’re an industry trade organization….They’re basically apolitical as well – they’re quite consciously not a political organization and not an organization that’s concerned about policy, whereas we’re fairly concerned about policy." Nevertheless, focusing on the policy aspects of the video game industry, especially where business models and financial interests are concerned, is somewhat new ground for the NMBA: although the alliance numbered game developers among its membership before the GDAO announcement, its convergence roots are still very much a presence. "Video games are much more mature and have those distinct and viable business models," says Kelso. "You make a game, you get distribution and an advance from your publisher, your publisher is responsible to negotiate, get your marketing and your distribution and your retail…so you know, OK, if I’m going to make a game, at least this is the framework that I’m working in. These are the steps." The two organizations have collaborated in the past, most notably working – although not always in unison – towards getting the provincial government to revamp its Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit. Earlier this year, those efforts were successful: the maximum credit for labour expenditures was raised from 20% to 30%, and, for the first time, companies working under fee-for-service arrangements were eligible for the credit. The latter was a particularly welcome change for game developers, Kelso says, given that many commonly sign over some or all of their intellectual property to a publisher in exchange for an advance on sales. Previously, only firms that retained their IP could meet the tax credit’s requirement. "It’s gone from almost an unusable tool to becoming a highly practical tool that is a lot more open for people around the industry to be able to pick up and use," Kelso says. Today, nearly everyone in the digital entertainment industry, from government agencies to producers to investors, is paying increasing attention to the social aspects of gaming, not just the commercial ones, making policy considerations even more important. "There’s been a recognition that games have a tremendous potential for the market the time our kids are spending with games is increasing all the time," Kelso says. "We see games affecting health, we see games in learning. It’s a true play environment." Plans are in the works to give mobile content providers and e-learning producers more space on the board as well, Kelso says, a change that, like the addition of GDAO, must be approved by the alliance’s membership. A vote on that matter is scheduled for this fall. "I think it’s both a practical recognition that we do represent some different groups that work on some different platforms that have some specific needs and specific priorities," he says. "I think it gives us more legs and more diversity and ability to make informed decisions about specific industries."

Game developers team up with NMBA

Broadcast | September 7, 2006

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