A coin always has two sides, three, so to speak. Here is the opinion of a video game industry worker who wrote me a very well written letter about the intangible positive impact of the industry in Montreal1.
Posted at 7:00 p.m
The letter follows my column critical of industry subsidies published on Tuesday. I explained that according to a study with subsidies from the Quebec government, companies in the industry make a net profit of $174 million per year after paying their taxes and payroll taxes.
Of the 200 companies, 15 foreign subsidiaries receive 75% of the funding at a time when there is still a shortage of workers, especially in IT.
“Hello, Mr. Vailles. Working in the industry myself I don’t know if scholarships are worthwhile but I can add a few things to feed your thoughts.
“I worked on Rainbow Six Siege for several years and it became the most played game in Ubisoft history. We built our team almost from the ground up. In the engine programming team there was a Dane, an Italian, an Australian, many French, Moroccans and so on.
“These people come to Montreal with some experience, often with young children. They have been educated in other countries and then offer us the most productive phases of their careers, their studies funded by the countries they come from. There are few Americans elsewhere, their college debts compelling them to stay in the United States for higher wages. »
“The lack of tax credits not only means that someone like me could leave Quebec and pay their taxes somewhere else, but also that these people would never have come here and not pay taxes here. »
“I’ve seen some of them start here too. When I was young we talked about the brain drain, about our doctors leaving Quebec. We import there.
“This reality is not project or company specific. WB Games Montreal making a Batman, Eidos Montreal reviving Deus Ex, Ubi Montreal and all its brands attracts people from all over the world.
“For example, when the studio that made the game LA Noire closed its doors in Australia about ten years ago, Ubi Montreal, the largest studio in the world, became a place of choice and took advantage.
“Another point: programmers aren’t the main workers of the video game industry, even if we are the main focus. Modellers, animators, level designers and everyone else involved in content creation are the mainstays, at much lower salaries than programmers.
“With a cap on the tax credit, they get most of their pay from grants. I don’t think these professions are that popular outside of the game. [ils gagnent donc davantage et paient plus d’impôts dans l’industrie du jeu vidéo qu’ailleurs].
“Obviously these artists could fill needs in other areas, but tell them that…”
“It’s actually a misunderstood aspect of the industry. Academics are basically programmers and managers. There are two worlds, one logical and one creative, working together. It’s not like a computer box at all. »
“Exploding Salaries”
“You quoted an average salary in your column [73 953 $ à Montréal pour un programmeur de jeux vidéo]. With an upper limit per employee and very different professions, the average here gives a rather imperfect picture. To give you an idea, the average you give is lower than the salary of programmers coming out of university!
“Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs… Ubisoft Montreal has become the biggest studio in the world by betting on several huge open worlds that require a lot of people to create content, much more than the kind of games that we do USA. So it’s very special that we can say that the games themselves have been affected by the subsidies.
“And the situation is still changing a lot. With the arrival of new players in town like Tencent, Amazon and Epic, programmer salaries have skyrocketed and it’s not yet clear if the studios already in place will survive. But that’s another topic. »
1. I slightly rephrased some passages and added some additions to the text taken from the email exchange I had with the author.