Game streaming technology provider BitRaider has announced it will be moving its offices from their current location in Jacksonville, Fl. to Baton Rouge, La.
The move will bring 22 BitRaider employees to Baton Rouge's technology park, as well as 35 indirectly created regional jobs and roughly $450,000 of new equipment investment for the area, according to Louisiana Economic Development.
Louisiana has been making a concerted effort to attract game industry and software development companies to the state with a
recently revamped digital media tax credit that gives a 25 percent break for general expenditures in the state and a 10 percent break on payroll taxes.
BitRaider also reportedly considered Canada, Florida and other states for its new location, but decided on Baton Rouge because of "a combination of the tax incentives and strong economic development programs, as well as the people and community we discovered here," according to BitRaider CEO Royal O'Brien.
Electronic Arts recently announced it would be
expanding its presence on Baton Rouge's LSU campus to a new, $30 million, 94,000 sq. ft. facility, after outgrowing
a testing facility established there in 2008.
Job postings discovered earlier this month suggest that major mobile developer Gameloft is
looking to open a new studio in New Orleans.
BitRaider's patented distribution technology,
first launched in 2008, reportedly allows games to start playing after as little as 10 percent of the complete package is downloaded. The technology is currently used in PC MMO titles
Runes of Magic and
Pirates of the Burning Sea.
