My partner's got over 6 years experience in the games industry and worked on +++A titles. It's now looking like leaving the UK would be a good option to fast-track his career further.

I was wondering if anyone here was in this line of work in Canada, or if anyone had any contacts in the industry to chat to about how it differed to the UK etc.

A cheeky ask, I know, but I saw the 'Film Industry' thread, and I thought I might as well give it a shot!

It depends on who you work for but overall I believe it is much better over here than in the UK (based on my friends'/ex-colleagues' comments). One of the reasons why I moved here was because the companies I worked for in the UK treated employees pretty badly.

The games industry is really growing here in Canada. There are plenty of jobs in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal right now. If developers have enough experience and AAA titles in their portfolio, they shouldn't have any problems finding work.

Here are some companies in the Vancouver area:

Relic Entertainment
Radical Entertainment
Rockstar Vancouver
Ubisoft Vancouver
Electronic Arts Canada

There are other companies that have offices here too; Vancouver is one of the game development capitals of North America.

Here are some more;

BLAST RADIUS http://www.blastradius.com/#/HOME/1/

NEXT LEVEL GAMES http://www.nextlevelgames.com/

BLUE CASTLE GAMES http://www.bluecastlegames.com/#pageId,1

A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. http://www.acronymonline.com/

ATOMIC ROBOT GAMES http://www.atomicrobotgames.com/

DEEP FRIED ENTERTAINMENT http://www.deepfriedentertainment.com/index.html

HOT HEAD GAMES http://www.hotheadgames.com/blog/

www.gamedevmap.com

gamedevmap.com

I know a few members on BE in the US section that are in the industry and I know at least one who has a husband working at Bioware, not on the forums much, but they might see the thread.

Also, N1cky in the US, moving from LA to Palo Alto, but they had a offer for a gig in Canada, might have contacts if you give her a pm.

Radical and R* though, that's funny...you don't want to move around the world for that kind of fun

Toronto is growing, Ubi do need to ramp up like a crazy thing, 600 jobs have to appear before to long and Montreal is a good spot. There's also a couple of small places in Nova Scotia, though one of those places just went splat recently.

http://www.gameindustrymap.com/

and that one.

Don't forget the east coast!

www.otherocean.com <- I used to work here
www.sculpinqa.com <- I work here (part of the Other Ocean Group)
www.telosentertainment.com
www.longtailstudios.com
www.hbstudios.com

And probably more that I don't recall

Slight typo on that last one....

http://www.hb-studios.com/ (which coincidentally is run by a British Expat)

The game industry is mailing concentrated in Vancouver and Montreal for the big developers. There are smaller ones all over the place, and Toronto is becoming more important, though is lagging well behind Vancouver and Montreal, and likely will for some time.

But it won't take long to grow, what with the numbers Ubi need to reach to keep their tax breaks....not like it's that far from Montreal either.

thanks for all this input, guys. Have been knocked off my feet with work and haven't had chance to check everything over, but really appreciate the input. Will be back to digest this all very soon. ta!

Hi, Hubby works for a very well known company in Montreal we are also from the u.k.(surrey)
Montreal and Vancouver are the places to be for the games industry. Toronto also has a few smaller companies and is starting to be known Ubisoft has just set up a office there and are currently looking.

If your other half has the skills and experience then he should have no problems getting here (only took us 8 weeks) Companies are always looking for international employees.

EA
Ubisoft
Bioware
Microsoft
Rockstar


PM me if you want any other info

Toronto is a good spot, subsidies mean Ubi need to hire a couple thousand people in the next few years and they aren't the only ones, but right now it's still a tad small.

R* I'd discount, they're R* and also hiring freeze except for very specific roles.

Someone here has a spouse working for Bioware, though they laid off loads in the Austin studio recently.

My hubby works at Bioware, you can pm me if there are any questions you think he can help you with.