ALBANY — The Capital Region’s video game cluster has weathered a major storm the past year amid record inflation, widespread layoffs and cost-cutting in the high-tech industry.
Even so, the Center for Economic Growth’s annual Capital Region Digital Gaming Cluster survey found that there are more than 500 employees in the local video game cluster — about the same as was reported in last year’s survey.
That stability is good news despite the headwinds facing the larger sector, including massive job cuts in big tech and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, a major lender to the high-tech industry. CEG noted the region also lost a major studio, PUBG MadGlory, although its founder and a top engineer started new local studios.
Despite that loss, though, CEG says there are several positive signs moving forward, including an expected burst of hiring and a new generation of students looking to embrace the industry.
CEG’s news release quoted Guha Bala, the president of Velan Studios, one of the top video game developers in the region, as saying that 2022 was a “transition year” with many firm dropping certain product lines and “rebalancing” its workforce.
“In the face of these transitions, the Capital Region has seen relative stability with sustained growth of several incumbents, and a reinvestment in the pipeline for future products,” Bala said in the release. “We can expect steady growth in 2023 as we build towards greater product output in future years.”
The CEG study found that there are 511 workers at 26 video game studios in the area, although 16 percent of those work remotely outside of New York, a common arrangement in the industry, which lends itself to remote work.
The industry is benefiting from the increase in popularity in esports — or video game leagues — at colleges, where participation is up 30 percent. The sport…
Read the full article here
