Hi, everyone.
I'm Dennis, with the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver. It's a very interesting initiative. It's a 19-acre site that is shared among UBC, SFU, BCIT, and Emily Carr—four of our leading universities out in Vancouver—with a core focus on digital media. It's the Centre for Digital Media.
One of our main operations is a master's of digital media program, which was established in 2007 mainly to service the game industry. We had a program that came out of industy for industry. Industry leaders, in working with the premier's technology task force, identified that this sector was one that was growing at a pace that identified a significant demand in having trained leaders who understand digital media, can become great content producers, and work together. With the establishment of this program, we have managed to recruit talent from around the world. About 60% of the students who come into this program are from the international community, and about 90% of those students are choosing to stay in Vancouver when having the option.
Our gaming community has, over the years, changed its focus a little bit. This is going to look at it from a bit of a competitive standpoint.
Vancouver has seen a bit of a decline with a number of major studios, at least on the triple-A side, that have been doing business in Vancouver. That said, we have had a number of smaller companies within the casual and mobile space start up. However, we have also lost a number of our graduates back to the international community because they are choosing to pursue opportunities abroad. I have five students who just moved to Berlin last year.
One of the areas we are really interested in, at least from the B.C. perspective, is continued growth and support for the game industry, both at the triple-A level and with the emerging companies.
Another factor I have recognized at international events is that Canada seems to be very provincially represented, but not so much nationally. With that, we have a strong partnership with industry. One of my colleagues on the industry side, Lance, is with Slant Six Games, one of our larger game companies in town, and is also a representative of BCI. I will let him speak to that in a second.
The reason I am interested in this conversation today is that any time we can have a discussion as to what is going to better position Canada's digital media strategy and employment opportunities for young graduates and talent, I am all for that.
To speak to B.C.'s state of the industry, I will pass the microphone to Lance.