Tara Colton, deputy director of Center for an Urban Future, authored a report that says New York City should do more for its video game industry. Wade Tinney, founding partner of Large Animal Games, talks about what it's like to be a gamer in the Big Apple.
Comments [4]
Best of luck in encouraging more game development in NYC, but I can't help but think it's a pipe dream. I moved out west several years ago specifically to work in the game industry. I've always watched for growth in the NYC area, hoping to someday move back. So far I've seen very little...certainly not enough to sustain a significant number of employees. I also don't think that the relaxed culture of many game studios around the country will match well with the fast-paced "get it done" New York attitude-- particularly when you're talking about local investors with no prior experience in games. Having worked out here with one entrepreneur from Chicago (which has a small game industry possibly comparable to NYC), it was painfully obvious that his expectations were way beyond what was realistically possible. I expect that this sort of naivety would be compounded in NYC, but I would love to be wrong about all this.
About the problem of high rents - does NYC not have any kind of small business incubator program? That seems hard to believe - where I am in NJ there a number of them at various universities, where small start-ups can get reduced rents, services like copying etc, assistance by various state programs with marketing and so forth. My small company has an office at the incubator in Jersey City. It is pretty convenient to Manhattan, and there is a fair amount of space available now. I would encourage any small business like these game companies to look into this one (the BDI at NJCU) or some of the others. And I would encourage Bloomberg to start some incubators, if he hasn't already!
Speaking as a working animator here in NYC, (I'm at work now,) It seems that there is too much over-head (rent) to be very competitive with the other videogame powerhouse cities. That is the most imposing hindrance to animation as well.
In the acticle your guest (Tara) seems to be trying to say "playstation" is a gaming company. Obviously Playstation is owned by Sony and is not a "company" on its own perse, and the Playstation division of Sony doesn't design games as far as I know. Was this just a mistake?
:"The city’s gaming
workforce is also much smaller than other hubs, largely because none
of the industry’s giants—such as Electronic Arts (EA), Ubisoft or Playstation—
are located here."
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