Thank you, Chair and members of the committee, for the invitation to appear before you today.
This study is one I take personally, and I'm grateful for the committee's commitment to understanding how best to support the next generation of artists.
I'm the founder and CEO of Iron Fox Games, a video game development studio based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. I've worked in this industry for nearly 20 years in the town where I grew up. Our studio has the core value of creating the next generation of game developers. Thus, this topic is quite important to me.
We've benefited from the support of those who came before us. Many of the young artists and developers working in Atlantic Canada today have careers here because of provincial and federal programs that made those opportunities possible. I see it as part of my job to make sure that the next group coming through has the same chance I had.
When most Canadians picture a performance space, they think of a theatre or a rehearsal hall. For game developers, it's a studio floor, a home office and collaboration across many time zones, often all at once. In practice, our creative space is the ecosystem itself—the tools, the distribution platforms we use, the training programs, the studios that give young artists somewhere to start.
When those pieces contract, the opportunities disappear with them. The pullback that happened in the game industry following the boom we saw during COVID has already started removing some of those opportunities for the next generation.
The Maritimes is not where most people expect to find game development, but I believe the track record speaks for itself. Our region developed the first game shown on stage by Steve Jobs at the launch of the App Store back in 2008. Our studios have shipped titles under franchises such as The Simpsons, Doom and Marvel, to name just a few.
What's been built here through VideogamesPEI, training at local schools and support from Innovation PEI and ACOA took years to put into place, but it's still quite vulnerable at this stage. The wave of major regional studio closures, such as at Microsoft, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts, is a reminder of that. Even so, we are finding our footing, with new studios opening in the wake of those closures and with events such as XP Game Connect Atlantic in Halifax, which is happening tomorrow.
Our creative spaces are being eroded from three directions at once. First, post-secondary programs in game design are among the first to be cut when Atlantic school budgets tighten. These programs are the talent pipeline for our small studios.
Second, there is international competition. Developers in eastern Europe, India and now Southeast Asia are producing equivalent work for 40% to 60% less cost, and publishers are acting on that math. It puts direct downward pressure on what Canadian studios can charge and what Canadian artists can realistically earn.
Third, there is AI. According to the GDC's “2025 State of the Game Industry Report”, one in 10 developers lost their job in the last year, with narrative designers and visual artists taking the heaviest losses. Thirty per cent of all active developers believe AI is actively harming the industry, nearly double the year prior. Entry-level creative roles in which young Canadians can start their careers are disappearing quickly. The full effect of AI is still quite unknowable in our industry. However, skilled people are needed to take the best advantage of it.
Canada's video game industry contributed $5.1 billion to the GDP of Canada in 2024. It employs 34,000 workers at an average salary of $102,000 per year and generates 88% of its revenue from exports. P.E.I. posted the country's fastest provincial GDP growth in that same period, at 3.6%, and this sector played a part in that story.
That position won't hold without active support from programs, studios and talent pipelines behind it. This committee has the opportunity to treat creative spaces in the digital arts as economic infrastructure through support for mentorship programs, experimental publishing models and an expanded commitment to programs such as the CMF and other regional initiatives.