The report concludes that New York has tremendous potential to cultivate a larger game industry—a prospect that, if achieved, could lead to hundreds, if not thousands, of new jobs and help the city diversify its economy. The study shows that New York has many of the ingredients necessary to be a major center for the industry: it boasts a deep pool of creative workers and it is home to some of the world’s most successful film, media and publishing companies—sectors that have similar characteristics as gaming. As with other Center reports on the biotechnology, air cargo and fashion industries, "Getting in the Game" highlights this sector as an untapped opportunity for the local economy.
New York faces a number of challenges in capturing a larger share of the industry’s future growth, however. Chief among these problems is a limited supply of technical workers, compounded by the fact that the city’s universities aren’t creating the pipeline of technical talent that local video game companies need. Other challenges include the high cost of doing business in New York and the fact that city and state economic development officials have done little to support the industry’s growth.
The report calls on city officials to integrate the gaming sector into their overall economic development strategy, urges New York’s universities to expand their video game programs to include a technical game design degree program and encourages universities and local game companies to forge closer ties.
Here's an excerpt from "Getting in the Game":
Video games have been around for more than 30 years now, but the industry has exploded in the last decade as home systems came to eclipse the arcade games that swallowed quarters by the millions in the 1980s. Computer and video game software sales in the United States have nearly tripled since 1996, reaching $7.4 billion in 2006, according to a 2006 report by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The number of video game units sold also skyrocketed, from 74 million in 1996 to more than 250 million a decade later. Meanwhile, membership in the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) grew by nearly 3,000 percent between 1999 and 2007.
The industry has taken off in part because games aren’t just for kids and teenagers anymore. New systems like Nintendo DS and Xbox Live Arcade, and the growing popularity of “casual games” like Diner Dash and Bejeweled, have redefined the industry. These casual games often are easier and shorter than typical "console" games like Halo and The Sims. Now a 40-year-old woman who likes to solve puzzles during her lunch break is now considered as much of a ‘gamer’ as a teenager playing a first-person shooter game for hours each night.
“It’s clear that video games are definitely a major mass medium now,” says Eric Zimmerman, co-founder of Gamelab, New York’s largest casual game company. “Games are not anymore just for geeky young males. In the generation growing up now, everyone is playing games. It’s simply part of their leisure landscape.”
