Evidence of meeting #43 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was games.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Senior Director, Business Planning and Development, BioWare ULC
It's a similar answer from our perspective. We're definitely supportive of it. The reality of the gaming industry, which has been alluded to by the other people at this table, is that it is an international business.
Fifty per cent of BioWare sales are in the rest of world and fifty per cent are North American typically. It's very good that we have supportable laws in Canada that take care of that. We still have work in our industry with respect to the rest of the world.
Communications Director, Ubisoft Entertainment Inc.
I have nothing to add to what has been said. It is important to us that we support our intellectual property. It is the name of the game. That's why brands will be made into movies, and that's where our money is. The content is key for us.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Carrier do you have any interface with Export Development Canada in your company?
Vice-President and Studio Head, Warner Brothers Games Montréal
We have no direct interface.
Conservative
Terence Young Conservative Oakville, ON
So that's not an issue. I wonder if you can tell the committee if you anticipate continual job creation and overall growth within the industry as a whole.
Please go ahead, Mr. Carrier.
Vice-President and Studio Head, Warner Brothers Games Montréal
We certainly hope so. What I can tell you is that when we started working on our Montreal or other studio expansion, the Canadian dollar was at 80¢ on the American dollar. Now we are at par.
We've been lucky to have great support programs through the multimedia tax credit, especially in Quebec. As long as we are able to have competitive measures and a competitive landscape, then I do believe we will continue growing, as long as commercial success is there to greet us also.
This is a growing industry that hires a lot of recent graduates, so as long as the winning conditions are there and the talent is available, hopefully we will continue to grow.
NDP
The Vice-Chair NDP Pierre Nantel
Thank you, Mr. Carrier. Thank you, Mr. Young.
Mr. Cash, you have the floor.
NDP
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It's great to have all of you here. This is an important moment because this is an industry in the arts and entertainment sector broadly speaking, which is relatively new when you compare it to music, film, theatre, and all the other arts endeavours that we think of when we talk about arts and culture. In fact, as you've said here, you employ creative people essentially to create these games. These are by and large story-driven vehicles.
It's important for us to know about how your industry operates, what you need and what you would like to have from us to help support this and to help encourage growth in the sector and employment for our artists, designers and programmers. We're really interested in what you have to say.
I want to get a bit more context.
Mr. Duchaine, I think you mentioned that your big game had moved over....
Communications Director, Ubisoft Entertainment Inc.
That was Assassin's Creed. It's over 38 million units.
NDP
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
Those are astounding numbers. I'm curious about whether you think much about how this success is expressed to Canadians. For example, if we had a Canadian-made CD album that sold 38 million copies, and I haven't checked the numbers, but we're talking of Michael Jackson's Thriller territory, here we have something, but Canadians largely don't know this. I think it's important that they do.
Do you talk about this? Do you think that element of it is important?
Communications Director, Ubisoft Entertainment Inc.
Yes. You just touched on one of the key aspects that I'm fighting for.
Next week we'll be launching the new version of Assassin's Creed. I'm pushing my team to bring as much press to this as possible, because our industry, as you mentioned, despite the fact it's about 30 years old now—it was launched in the 1970s—is still a young industry compared to music. We're still considered by some an industry of geeks. Some still see us as kids who are living in our parents' garage developing games. It's sad in one way.
We try to get visibility, to get mass media to pay attention to what we do. I was listening to radio the other day and they were so excited to say that there's a Quebec singer called Marie-Mai who just sold 40,000 albums. I was driving my car and it made me crazy. She's getting all this spotlight, and it's in one province where what we all do....
I remember when I did Avatar. I went to Australia to promote Avatar and two people from BioWare were sitting on the same flight back from Sydney. All of us were from Canadian companies and we were in Australia. When is the last time you heard of Canadian filmmakers or musicians who get visibility all around the world? It is critical and we try. I think Martin was head of communications with us before. I think we all try to get as much visibility as possible. We just hope that mass media will consider us more as a grown-up industry. The average player is in his thirties now. He's no longer 15 and alone in his living room. It's a bigger industry than that.
Vice-President and Studio Head, Warner Brothers Games Montréal
If I may add to that, I think video games are a great untold Canadian story in a way. We are a massively successful industry, which has its challenges of course, but it's a great industry that helps Canada establish itself around the world. This morning I read something in La Presse. I guess we have to work on our image, but it said, “Les jeux vidéo sont-ils sains pour les jeunes?” “Are video games good for kids?” Yes, of course they are. They've certainly evolved over the years. We still are carrying an image of teenage boys holed up in the basement for hours on end. Video games are so much more today when you think about the connect, how people are moving in front of the TV. Video games are making people interact and share their experiences and connect with people all over the world.
I think we're much greater than that. It's an industry that's gone way beyond the clichés that we may have had in the past.
NDP
Andrew Cash NDP Davenport, ON
Absolutely.
We have an issue here in the Canadian arts and culture sector generally speaking where, for example, we have screenwriters who move to Los Angeles to work. We've got musicians and actors who do the same thing. If we created a context in which our artists stayed in Canada, I think it would be better for everybody.
What I'm hearing today is essentially you've got people wanting to come here. The analogies aren't perfect. There is this huge industry down in Los Angeles, and I understand that, but maybe there are things about why people want to come here that you can share with us and which can help us understand how we might be able to keep artists from other sectors here.
Senior Director, Business Planning and Development, BioWare ULC
Certainly, from my perspective and when I look at the companies that we have in Montreal and all Canada, it is a commitment to quality, and within our industry it's a well-respected development community. That quality comes from having quality work environments and being able to hire the right people for the job.
From my perspective, the companies here have done a really good job of establishing a solid reputation within the industry. That's one of the reasons people want to come. People want to move to Edmonton, of all places, because they want to work for BioWare. They want to move to Montreal because they want to work for Ubisoft or Warner. It's about creating excellent work environments. It's about building intellectual property in which people want to take part. They want to be part of that creative process that's a respected property worldwide. It's fundamental to that for us especially.
NDP
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, welcome, as I've said before.
One of the things I find interesting about this is that a lot of people out there, and this dovetails what Mr. Cash was saying, don't understand how much artistic value is involved in this. It's a technical thing according to everybody out there. To them it's all about the computers and knowing the computer languages, and it's not. There's a great deal of imagination involved here.
This is far from the days of Pitfall Harry and Pac-Man. This is obviously something that's gone beyond that to the point where it inspires movies, as you said earlier. There's a story to be told. It seems to me there's far more involved from the scriptwriting, concept development, perspective, all these things that exist in Hollywood. You play at that level as well.
Senior Director, Business Planning and Development, BioWare ULC
Absolutely.
Our team's actually on the development side. We'll peak at about 180 to 200 people when they're in full development. Of that, more than 70% are on the artistic side, so whether it's art, animation, the design of the game, a lot less of it's technology from that.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor, NL
Yes, and I noticed a lot of big name actors too who you would imagine would only be appearing in certain movies. They don't do the other stuff. They wouldn't dare venture into TV, but they're doing the voices for video games. That also leads into just how large this industry is, and the artistic value of it.
You said earlier, Mr. Duchaine, and I guess similar to others, that you have in-house education that's pretty intense at all levels.