Video Game Industry Goes For A Long Life In Mass.
Massachusetts’ video game industry occupies nearly the same space in the minds of the state’s government and economists as the life sciences industry.
Each carries with it the high hopes of the state, as well as some very serious uncertainty about whether its success will have any real economic impact.
Even those who argue that Massachusetts is at the center of a “perfect storm” for the sector worry that the way the industry operates, and its relationship with state employment laws, could hinder it in the coming years.
As it stands, the video game industry in Massachusetts is made up of about 76 companies that employ about 2,000 people, according to Paul D. Cotnoir, chairman of Becker College’s Arts in Design program. Combined, those companies do about $2 billion in sales annually, he said.
Cotnoir is an optimist. The state, he said, “is strongly positioned to claim the lead position in the nation in high-quality, next-generation job creation.”
Regional Outlook
Mark Claypool, who runs Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s game design program, said he considers New England the third-most prominent region in the nation for the game industry behind Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas.
And the industry’s prospects are good. The proportion of society that has never been exposed to video games is shrinking rapidly. And “young people are playing more than they did when I was young. The volume is growing,” Claypool said.
Also, Massachusetts is strong when it comes to the “games for health” niche, Claypool said. Even moms and dads in their 30s and 40s, who have surely been exposed to video games but are not “gamers” themselves, have flocked recently to games intended to help get them in shape or manage their health.
Massachusetts game developers also have a prominent presence in “serious games” used to simulate combat or other real-world activities.
“That can explode. That can be a huge area, if the DOD (U.S. Department of Defense) and the health-care industry can get on board,” Claypool said.
In addition to a host of popular, university-level game development programs, Massachusetts is home to savvy investors who are unafraid to put their money behind game development firms, the success of which can be very difficult to predict.
However, the video game industry in Massachusetts has a couple of underlying problems to overcome if it is to truly become a national powerhouse.
One of those problems is of the industry’s own making. Game design programs like those at Becker or WPI or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are very good at producing very smart designers, but the industry is still run, by-and-large, by old-school do-it-yourselfers with little formal training.
The industry also relies on freelancers to do design work, and that may not seem like a sterling prospect to a young man or woman who just dropped thousands of dollars for a game design degree and perhaps wants full-time employment with benefits.
“The industry itself is figuring out what to do with kids who come from a game program,” Claypool said. “There are lots of software jobs out there, and graduating from WPI with a computer science degree presents you with lots of opportunities. Coming out of the game program, it’s more competitive, it’s harder to get a job and (game development) studios come and go.”
Studios aren’t skeptical about graduates of game programs, but, Claypool adds, “they don’t know what a degree in game design gets them, and it’s less clear what it helps with. A degree is great, but (graduates) really need to show what you can do with a portfolio, or maybe something new you did on your own.”
And those graduates should worry about more than just their fellow graduates and the old school basement programmers. Recent graduates from way outside the game development track can find their way into the industry as well.
“Game art is a great way to get employed. There’s nice opportunities for artists in the game industry compared to what else they might do,” Claypool said.
Cotnoir pointed out that the fickle nature of the game industry can be tough on employees. Many studios require employees to sign strict non-compete agreements “that could prevent you from plying your trade for months or years,” he said.
Massachusetts firms have already found themselves unable to hire the programmers they might want because they’re tied up in non-compete agreements.
California has “very good laws and policies” to help with those situations, Cotnoir said. Massachusetts, he said, “wouldn’t be reinventing the wheel” to adopt similar policies.
Matthew L. Brown is a freelance writer based in Connecticut. He can be reached at mlbrown76@hotmail.com.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments