'Developers are a footloose bunch' says Toronto-based senior reporter
Ubisoft’s newest venture in Toronto is dangerous and damaging to the city’s troubled economy, according to a local senior reporter at news group The Globe and Mail.
Marcus Gee’s column compares Ubisoft’s new Toronto deal – funded by a CA$263 million grant – to a string of forward-looking govt investments which have fallen short of expectations.
His point is that Toronto's govt tends to back the wrong horse.
“Recently, the ‘creative’ industries have been in vogue. Remember the [CA]$6-million that Toronto and the province put up for the Lord of the Rings musical? It flopped,” he wrote.
The editorial goes on to mention “that subsidy sponge”, the auto industry. “We all know how that turned out,” he added, perhaps unfairly for an inevitable frontline victim of an unprecedented global recession.
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Ubisoft and Toronto Premier Dalton McGuinty stated that the new Toronto studio would create some 800 jobs over 10 years, yet Gee points out the cyclical nature of game development and game studios:
“Ubisoft executives say they are in love with Toronto and promise to spend CA$500-million of the company's own money here, which is awfully big of them. But game developers are a footloose bunch, jumping from place to place in search of talent and government handouts.
“Many of those new-media types now active in Canada were lured here from Europe. Britain's industry is steaming over Canada's talent piracy and the British government is considering tax measures to lure developers back.
“Who is to say they won't jump across the pond when the tax picture changes. Or when currency-exchange rates make Canada less desirable. Or when all that government money helps inflate salaries for the creative people that game developers need.”
Develop’s coverage of the Toronto Ubisoft deal can be found here.
Gee’s column was found through a GamePolitics report.
"Ubisoft, if it was truly successful, wouldn't need handouts"
'nuff said.
I agree Onlooker! And other companies such as EA Montreal and Eidos Montreal should be worried too. Ubi has got a strong hold of the Canadian games industry, where does this leave competitors? I doubt it will be helping them much.
Drawing comparisons to a doomed musical and the auto industry is some of the most sensatational 'journalism' and fear-mongering i've so far read about the games industry. These desperate comparisons highlight the author's lack of research into game development.
As is usual with these poorly written reactionary statements, they say more about the journalist than the real picture of the industry.
Reading this it seems fair to equate the Globe & Mail with the UK's 'Sun' newspaper. Probably written down the pub after a few too many.
Ubisoft Montreal never employs Canadian composers. They always prefer USA composers. They create jobs but not for music. What a shame
The only reason there are lots of game companies in esp. Montreal is because of the huge gov. tax breaks they get. There are better places to be and certainly more talented people elsewhere.
Scott does not like Montreal, for whatever reason. I don't think you can explain that simply Montreal's 7,500-strong game development industry. It started very small in the eighties. They did well in every aspect to develop a gamedev friendly environment. They succeeded. We should applaud to it.
