Games are a $2.3B industry in Canada alone

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada has released its 2013 report on the state of the Canadian games industry, revealing that games brought in $2.3 billion of Canada's gross national product (GDP) in 2012. The report, prepared by Nordicity, also found that of the 329 game studios operating in Canada in 2013, 76 percent (about 250 companies) are domestically owned and operated, directly employing about 16.5 thousand people full time across the country. "In line with the global growth trends of the video game industry toward mobility, 84 percent of Canadian video game companies are actively working on products or services for mobile platforms," says the ESAC report, contrasting this with the 66 percent developing for PC/Mac and 48 percent geared toward console. Also unsurprising, the vast majority of Canadian game firms (88 percent, or around 290 studios) are classed as "micro- and small-sized organizations," most of which are under six years of age. "It is a still a young industry," says the ESAC report. You can read the entire report here, as a PDF.