Why young Albertans say this is the place to grow their video game careers

Alberta’s game-development industry was experiencing substantial growth despite concerns that the province lacked competitive incentives compared with other Canadian jurisdictions. The province had nearly 100 game companies and roughly 1,300 workers, with established Edmonton developers such as BioWare, Beamdog and Inflexion Games joined by a growing number of smaller studios. The expansion demonstrated Alberta’s ability to develop experienced talent and create internationally recognized games, but industry representatives identified the absence of a provincial interactive digital media tax credit as a barrier to further growth. Competing provinces offered incentives that reduced development costs and helped attract investment and large studios. For Alberta, the issue was therefore not simply whether a game industry existed, but whether provincial policy would allow its existing studios to expand, retain skilled workers and compete for investment with Canada's larger game-development centres.