Feature: Is Canada Helping Indies?

Author: by Staff

In Gamasutra's latest feature, former IGDA executive director Jason Della Rocca questions whether current government incentives in Canada support indie games -- and examines why and how they should. Canada is famous for tax breaks and other forms of support for the major publishers -- with Montreal in particular being home to huge studios such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, THQ and Square Enix. But does the national or the provincial governments do what is necessary to foster indie innovation? Della Rocca asks developers, including Andy Moore of SteamBirds developer Radial Games, who says "The government is not meeting my needs at all. I can't find a single person that's been able to apply for the incentives here, never mind get them. I believe they are all geared to larger studios, and it's very difficult for me to find any information or take any advantage of it." Says Moore, "I've spoken with Vancouver-based government reps in industry booths at various shows, and they only seem to have information for studios with 25+ people as a minimum. They had no concept of an indie game or that our studios even existed." Even the Ontario government, which has used an incubation model to help out indies, saved its biggest largesse for Ubisoft, which got $260 million in tax breaks when it opened its new studio. The full feature dives deep into the issue, explaining what could be done to improve it and why it's so crucial that it is done -- and it's live now on Gamasutra.