Game studio location *spawn

[eastmen]

EA (I'm assuming other publishers also) have a programming team that they have available that they use to help all studios. They also frequently shuffle people from one project to another as projects get finished. I'm assuming tech is shared whenever possible.

Thing is, art is going to be a large cost and except for mundane items not much of that can be shared. Licensing fees (all those sports and movie games) can't be shared. And the larger your company the larger your day to day operating costs (building, utility, administration, accounting, etc...). Those day to day costs rise in a non-linear fashion. The larger your company the larger the percentage of day to day costs.

Title could be made cheaper at independant developers (avoiding publishing deals) I think, just due to the massive reduction in overhead. Unfortunately, there's no way for an independant developer to not only raise funds for anything but a small title but then distribute it themselves.

Regards,
SB

Companys should come look at south jersey , tons of cheap office space. you can make your own compound here and pay practicly nothing. Just stay out of north jersey and away from the shore and your good to go.

 

[Bigduo209]

Companies should come look at south jersey , tons of cheap office space. you can make your own compound here and pay practically nothing. Just stay out of north jersey and away from the shore and your good to go.

And that's another thing that raises costs, a studio's location. I don't know why a lot of these companies keep development studios in the west (well mostly California), since we always hear about how expensive the cost of living is in those areas.

The only non-western studios I can think of is NCSoft, Insomniac North Carolina, and EA Chicago (which was closed down long ago). I can't even think of any other known game studios in the south alone, is there any others in Texas, Virginia, Atlanta, and other places. I'm sure there's quite a few in New York, but there's not many that come to mind in the Northeast either.

I mean how can they create studios in Europe, China, Korea, and India, but forget about most (if not half) of the United States?

 

[Sonic]

Maryland has quite a few studios such as Bethesda, Big Huge Games, and Firaxis. Not sure of the exact locations in Maryland but I imagine near the D.C. area as that seems where most tech companies in the area are centered.

California is just an extremely desirable place to live compared to many parts of the state. In the Bay Area you have mild weather year round, really good culture less than an hour away and access to all types of entertainment places. It is the big tech location of the US with many companies headquartered or impressive amounts of employees working here. I know cost of living is much higher, but I also tend to think the communities and locale offer a more desirable place for a multitude of people and well lots of game developers, be it artists or programmers or engineers, really like this area. Game companies have long been established in the area and have roots if you will. The video game industry seems to accommodate salaries where one can afford to live in a more expensive area.

The problem with Souther New Jersey is that it is a largely boring area with not much going on. Sure you have access to beaches and good nightlife in Atlantic City but the further in you go the more of everything looks the same boringness nothing but farms comes to mind. I imagine for many it is not exactly where they would want to live and work, and I am sure dev teams keep that in mind. That's not to say if someone funded a development team in the area it wouldn't attract people, it definitely would. It's just really dull there. Sorry eastmen, I'm originally from the area and it's boring. Still, NYC is awesome.

 

[obonicus]

EA Chicago

NavNucST3 might know for sure, but isn't Warner Chicago (the folks working on new MK) pretty much EA Chicago?

 

[tuna]

And that's another thing that raises costs, a studio's location. I don't know why a lot of these companies keep development studios in the west (well mostly California), since we always hear about how expensive the cost of living is in those areas.

Because there is where the talent is?

 

[joker454]

Companys should come look at south jersey , tons of cheap office space. you can make your own compound here and pay practicly nothing. Just stay out of north jersey and away from the shore and your good to go.

If one is going to move, then may as well just move the studio to Canada. Some provinces like Quebec give video game companies amazing tax breaks and financial incentives, medical care is taken care of, less frivolous lawsuits, etc...

And that's another thing that raises costs, a studio's location. I don't know why a lot of these companies keep development studios in the west (well mostly California), since we always hear about how expensive the cost of living is in those areas.

Game development is still mostly a young mans game, and it's easier to pull young males to California compared to other places in the USA. I mean when I was recruiting, it was very beneficial to say "Hey come to Los Angeles" compared to "Hey come to (insert city with winter, gloomy weather, and less year round skimpily dressed girls here)". Also a typical game devs main expense is rent, they don't have families, homes, etc, so the cost of living isn't as bad as one would immediately think. It's also easier to setup new studios where there are many other existing ones since you can swipe talent fairly easily, no need to fly people in to interview, etc. Plus the movie studios are here, makes it all very convenient to have all the movie and game related industries/resources so close together.

 

[Bigduo209]

NavNucST3 might know for sure, but isn't Warner Chicago (the folks working on new MK) pretty much EA Chicago?

Like I said, I'm not too sure about a lot of studios in many areas, but thank god if most of those guys are working on some big projects.

Because there is where the talent is?

Because there's no potential talent anywhere else? Get real...

If one is going to move, then may as well just move the studio to Canada. Some provinces like Quebec give video game companies amazing tax breaks and financial incentives, medical care is taken care of, less frivolous lawsuits, etc...




Game development is still mostly a young mans game, and it's easier to pull young males to California compared to other places in the USA. I mean when I was recruiting, it was very beneficial to say "Hey come to Los Angeles" compared to "Hey come to (insert city with winter, gloomy weather, and less year round skimpily dressed girls here)". Also a typical game devs main expense is rent, they don't have families, homes, etc, so the cost of living isn't as bad as one would immediately think. It's also easier to setup new studios where there are many other existing ones since you can swipe talent fairly easily, no need to fly people in to interview, etc. Plus the movie studios are here, makes it all very convenient to have all the movie and game related industries/resources so close together.

And there's plenty talent in other areas of the US that have yet to be tapped. The southeast US for example is a great place to inexpensively start-up an office, find nearby talent to take advantage of. Not every US state besides California is sunny, I mean hell, Florida is called the sunshine, and who wouldn't wanna enjoy sun and fun in Miami. Atlanta, GA is home to huge places like CNN and the CDC so I doubt a lack of Technicology or communication is big issue considering the Internet is great equalizer in that area.

 

[tuna]

Because there's no potential talent anywhere else? Get real...

OK， because there is where most of the established talent is. Would you rather invest in the ex-IW guys than me?

 

[Squilliam]

And there's plenty talent in other areas of the US that have yet to be tapped. The southeast US for example is a great place to inexpensively start-up an office, find nearby talent to take advantage of. Not every US state besides California is sunny, I mean hell, Florida is called the sunshine, and who wouldn't wanna enjoy sun and fun in Miami. Atlanta, GA is home to huge places like CNN and the CDC so I doubt a lack of Technicology or communication is big issue considering the Internet is great equalizer in that area.

Texas is one of the biggest areas for game development in the U.S.A. Its not california but its pretty much ahead of everywhere else. Checking Wikipedia I saw 8 listings for studios in Texas.

 

[joker454]

And there's plenty talent in other areas of the US that have yet to be tapped.

Not so sure about that, we've always had a hell of a time finding qualified people to hire in the USA. Usually we ended up importing talent from around the world instead. It's more expensive to hire people from outside the USA because of the legal ridiculousness that it entails, but there wasn't a whole lot of choice. Some studios got fed up with the difficultly in importing talent and just ended up setting up studios around the world. You can thank silly h1b restrictions as to why some publishers closed up shops in the USA and set up new ones outside the USA like in Montreal.

The southeast US for example is a great place to inexpensively start-up an office, find nearby talent to take advantage of. Not every US state besides California is sunny, I mean hell, Florida is called the sunshine, and who wouldn't wanna enjoy sun and fun in Miami. Atlanta, GA is home to huge places like CNN and the CDC so I doubt a lack of Technicology or communication is big issue considering the Internet is great equalizer in that area.

There has to be other programming related jobs available to make it worth while for people to want to move there. I'm not American, but I moved to the US back in the 90's. I've been checking where the jobs are and for programming related stuff there just wasn't a whole lot in Florida. The big hubs back then and as far as I can see still today were Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. I lived and worked in three of those four cities and jobs were always plentiful until very recently as the game biz started a downturn. Even without the gaming biz though, there are so many programming jobs available in LA that no programmer needs to be out of work.

 

[eastmen]

And that's another thing that raises costs, a studio's location. I don't know why a lot of these companies keep development studios in the west (well mostly California), since we always hear about how expensive the cost of living is in those areas.

The only non-western studios I can think of is NCSoft, Insomniac North Carolina, and EA Chicago (which was closed down long ago). I can't even think of any other known game studios in the south alone, is there any others in Texas, Virginia, Atlanta, and other places. I'm sure there's quite a few in New York, but there's not many that come to mind in the Northeast either.

I mean how can they create studios in Europe, China, Korea, and India, but forget about most (if not half) of the United States?

wasn't austin texas really big and still kinda big for development ?

 

[eastmen]

Maryland has quite a few studios such as Bethesda, Big Huge Games, and Firaxis. Not sure of the exact locations in Maryland but I imagine near the D.C. area as that seems where most tech companies in the area are centered.

California is just an extremely desirable place to live compared to many parts of the state. In the Bay Area you have mild weather year round, really good culture less than an hour away and access to all types of entertainment places. It is the big tech location of the US with many companies headquartered or impressive amounts of employees working here. I know cost of living is much higher, but I also tend to think the communities and locale offer a more desirable place for a multitude of people and well lots of game developers, be it artists or programmers or engineers, really like this area. Game companies have long been established in the area and have roots if you will. The video game industry seems to accommodate salaries where one can afford to live in a more expensive area.

The problem with Souther New Jersey is that it is a largely boring area with not much going on. Sure you have access to beaches and good nightlife in Atlantic City but the further in you go the more of everything looks the same boringness nothing but farms comes to mind. I imagine for many it is not exactly where they would want to live and work, and I am sure dev teams keep that in mind. That's not to say if someone funded a development team in the area it wouldn't attract people, it definitely would. It's just really dull there. Sorry eastmen, I'm originally from the area and it's boring. Still, NYC is awesome.

Hmm Lets see your about 15-20 minutes away from Philly , your 30-45 mins away from NYC by train , 10 mins away from Rutgars and that night life down there .

I'm from North Jersey but south jersey is a good cheap place with tons of land and is close to alot of thing

 

[Silent_Buddha]

And that's another thing that raises costs, a studio's location. I don't know why a lot of these companies keep development studios in the west (well mostly California), since we always hear about how expensive the cost of living is in those areas.

The only non-western studios I can think of is NCSoft, Insomniac North Carolina, and EA Chicago (which was closed down long ago). I can't even think of any other known game studios in the south alone, is there any others in Texas, Virginia, Atlanta, and other places. I'm sure there's quite a few in New York, but there's not many that come to mind in the Northeast either.

I mean how can they create studios in Europe, China, Korea, and India, but forget about most (if not half) of the United States?

There's a few developement studios based in Texas. ID software being the highest profile one. Interestingly also perhaps the last of the US based AAA independant devs (only just recently merged into Bethesda).

There's also some studios in Seattle, but that faces the same cost of living problems as many of the other metropolitan areas.

I "believe" there's a studio or two in Atlanta, but not sure about that.

It is interesting that some of the newer companies pushing tech in the PC side of gaming are out of former Soviet Block countries with lower dev costs and lower organizational costs.

Regards,
SB

 

[aaronspink]

Companys should come look at south jersey , tons of cheap office space. you can make your own compound here and pay practicly nothing. Just stay out of north jersey and away from the shore and your good to go.

Cause its Jersey. Who the hell wants to live there? Its far enough away from a real city to be a pain, it doesn't have any good universities or art communities, food is meh, etc. Its like asking why there aren't any game companies in Siberia. There is a reason that tech hubs are in places with good food, good universities, good cities, interesting arts communities, etc.

As far as why california? besides the fact that cali is nice, even parts of socal, its also where a LOT of game development started. The only major publisher/studio outside of a major city I know of is Stardock and they are in Ann Arbor which is a major college town which means good nightlife, good food, lots of educated people, etc.

 

[aaronspink]

Because there's no potential talent anywhere else? Get real...

Why go to the talent when the talent comes to you.

And there's plenty talent in other areas of the US that have yet to be tapped. The southeast US for example is a great place to inexpensively start-up an office, find nearby talent to take advantage of. Not every US state besides California is sunny, I mean hell, Florida is called the sunshine, and who wouldn't wanna enjoy sun and fun in Miami. Atlanta, GA is home to huge places like CNN and the CDC so I doubt a lack of Technicology or communication is big issue considering the Internet is great equalizer in that area.

Major issue with Florida is a general lack of high quality universities. You have Florida and that's about it. Compared with Chicago which has UofC, NW, UIUC, UM, UW, etc within a fairly short distance. Or the whole UC system in Cali, or UT/A&M in Texas, etc. The only school in Georgia with top notch tech is GT. Still both the atlanta area and florida have some studios. The notable ones in the atlanta area are CCP (aka eve online) and the guys behind global agenda. For Florida the big one is EA Tiburon.

But the main problem is games are high tech and tend to center around areas of other high tech. Hence the large number of studios in the bay area, LA basin, San Diego, Seattle, etc.

 

[aaronspink]

Not so sure about that, we've always had a hell of a time finding qualified people to hire in the USA. Usually we ended up importing talent from around the world instead. It's more expensive to hire people from outside the USA because of the legal ridiculousness that it entails, but there wasn't a whole lot of choice. Some studios got fed up with the difficultly in importing talent and just ended up setting up studios around the world. You can thank silly h1b restrictions as to why some publishers closed up shops in the USA and set up new ones outside the USA like in Montreal.

Tell me about it, still haven't figured out why the US and Canada haven't moved to an open employment immigration system. In the chip industry, you tend to grab talent wherever you can find it, which is why every company I've worked for has had multiple development teams/satellites throughout the world. When you are looking through 40+ resumes per spot, you pretty much jump at any good ones and hope the h1b gods of smiling.

There has to be other programming related jobs available to make it worth while for people to want to move there. I'm not American, but I moved to the US back in the 90's. I've been checking where the jobs are and for programming related stuff there just wasn't a whole lot in Florida. The big hubs back then and as far as I can see still today were Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. I lived and worked in three of those four cities and jobs were always plentiful until very recently as the game biz started a downturn. Even without the gaming biz though, there are so many programming jobs available in LA that no programmer needs to be out of work.

Yep, graphics designers, etc, are in the same boat. The large concentration for art related jobs are also clustered in the big cities with things like Ad firms, TV/Film, etc. There isn't a whole lot of difference between doing modeling for a game studio and doing characters/modeling for say Pixar.

 

[aaronspink]

wasn't austin texas really big and still kinda big for development ?

Yeah Austin is big for game development/graphics/etc largely because of UT and the fact that Austin ISN'T Texas. So all the cool people from Texas move there if they don't go out of state.

 

[eastmen]

Cause its Jersey. Who the hell wants to live there? Its far enough away from a real city to be a pain, it doesn't have any good universities or art communities, food is meh, etc. Its like asking why there aren't any game companies in Siberia. There is a reason that tech hubs are in places with good food, good universities, good cities, interesting arts communities, etc.

As far as why california? besides the fact that cali is nice, even parts of socal, its also where a LOT of game development started. The only major publisher/studio outside of a major city I know of is Stardock and they are in Ann Arbor which is a major college town which means good nightlife, good food, lots of educated people, etc.

Princeton University isn't a good college ? NJIT is another big college , then you have TCNJ and Rutgars.

Meh , I don't know why california , aside from the weather its a pretty shit place to live.

 

[Sonic]

Princeton University isn't a good college ? NJIT is another big college , then you have TCNJ and Rutgars.

Meh , I don't know why california , aside from the weather its a pretty shit place to live.

How could you possibly think California is a shit place to live? Because we have high taxes or something? I mean seriously, you live in New Jersey and you're saying California is shit? Dude you're crazy. We have mountains, we have clean beaches and a clean coast line (compared to Jersey and much of the north east coast), we have great weather, we have amazing culture, and there are communities here that thrive off of it. We may have high taxes, but so does Jersey.

Yeah Princeton is one of the best colleges, if you have the money to afford it or a scholarship that will give you a ride.

But to think California is a bad place to live is laughable. It's one of the better parts of the US and a lot more relaxed than say the east coast. Plus we have locally grown marijuana that is among the best in this country and plenty available and our policemen generally do not harass those even without a medical card.

And again there is Hollywood in LA, there are all the CG places in the Bay Area, there is Intel, AMD, IBM, Nvidia, etc. that are all based out of here or have significant amounts of employees in the area. There's much more talent here because it attracts much more talent whether it be the lifestyle, or just the opportunities for tech work.

 

[corduroygt]

LOL @ NJ being better than CA. As long as CA doesn't go bankrupt, it's way better than NJ.
However, arguing about availability of illegal drugs as an advantage=fail.

South Jersey is a good place for a datacenter though, I heard from a business acquaintance that owns one there.