UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO Faculty of Arts

A Problem with Perspective: A Historiography of the Canadian Video Game Industry

HIST 601 Waterloo, Ontario

Prepared by David R. Hussey ID 20332825 December 10, 2014

Introduction

The video game industry contributed 2.3 billion dollars to the Canadian GDP in 2014 and continues to grow each year.1 The political, economic, social, and cultural implications of the industry are vast and the medium’s growth worldwide is bringing these implications to the forefront. Yet despite all this, the literature that currently exists on the Canadian video game industry’s history is limited.

Conducting a historiography of the Canadian industry is problematic, as video games are still finding their way into academia. However, there are other areas of research that can provide a clearer understanding of the industry, where it came from, and what aspects of it still require exploration. Therefore, in order to understand the Canadian video game industry, the gaze from which the literature is obtained must be widened and include sources from other disciplines along with non-academic material. These numerous works utilize a range of methods to conduct their research, all of which are successful in returning meaningful conclusions. However, in order to gain a clear picture of the Canadian video game industry, a combination of perspectives are necessary.

This paper will be organized thematically rather than chronologically. The purpose of this is twofold: first, the scholarship varies so greatly that trying to organize the different sections by time would limit the effectiveness of the arguments presented, and second, nearly all of the scholarship was published in the last twenty years, thereby making it easier to visualize the research by theme. As

1 “2014 Essential Facts about the Canadian Video Game Industry,” Entertainment Software Association of Canada, 2014, accessed December 1, 2014, http://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ESAC-Essential-Facts-2014.pdf.

1

well, it will begin broad in scope and narrow as it proceeds through the themes. This is done to observe how the video game industry fits into larger concepts of economics and business before putting forth examples of video game scholarship.

This paper is divided into two sections: economics, and video games. The video game industry is a subset of the broader creative economy and therefore, creative economic theory needs to be explained first in order to understand the sector in which video games fits. After this, a brief historiography of Canadian economic history will be put forth followed by a comparison to Canadian business history methodology and information. This section will conclude with an examination of Canadian film industry history as an example of how the history of another Canadian creative economic sector is structured.

The next section focuses on video game literature. The purpose of this distinction from the first half of the paper is that the second section’s literature is almost entirely from outside the historical field. This section will begin by examining the history of academic video game research then continue by examining broad video game history, both by popular and academic authors. Finally, this paper will analyze pieces with narrower scope, beginning with the Canadian video game history before moving onto city-specific industry studies and histories of individual video game development studios.

Economics

Studying the history of an industry requires a firm grasp of the overall national economic history in order to understand where the industry fits into the overall economic landscape. However, before studying Canadian economic or

2

business history, it should first be defined where the video game industry aligns in the overall economy. The creative economy is defined as industries and services that are bound by their access to intellectual resources and creativity rather than the physical resources required by manufacturing or staples sectors. 2 The transition to this type of economy has become a talking point in Canada3 and other Western developed nations4 in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. David Hesmondhalgh is a leading scholar is the study of these industries and argues that a number of factors led to the focus on the creative economy but perhaps most significantly, “in the G7 countries between 1970 and 1990, profits fell significantly across all sectors, but especially in manufacturing.”5 For Canada, the recession of 2008 may have permanently damaged the manufacturing sector,6 and therefore understanding the rise of the creative economy in Canada is going to be more relevant in the coming years.

2 This paper chose to use the term creative economy although a debate between the use of knowledge economy, cultural industries and other terms exists. Creative economy is sufficient for the purposes of this paper. See David Throsby, The Economics of Cultural Policy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 88-89. 3 Paul Tsaparis, “Canada must develop our knowledge economy,” Globe and Mail, April 27, 2014, accessed December 3, 2014, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership- lab/canada-must-develop-our-knowledge-economy/article18229988/. 4 For European interest in the creative economy see EY, Creating growth: measuring cultural and creative markets in the EU, December 2014, accessed December 9, 2014, http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-Creating-Growth-Measuring- Cultural-and-Creative-Markets-in-the-EU/$FILE/EY-Creating-Growth-Measuring- Cultural-and-Creative-Markets-in-the-EU.pdf. 5 David Hesmondhalgh, The Cultural Industries, 3rd Edition (London: Sage, 2013), 97. 6 David Parkinson, “Rob Insight Economy: A Wake-Up Call from Straight-Talking Poloz,” Globe and Mail, October 23, 2014, accessed November 15, 2014, accessed through Scholars Portal.

3

Urban clustering is an important aspect of the creative economy and necessary to understand when exploring video game development industries. The video game industry in Canada clusters in large urban city clusters, specifically

Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto. Manufacturing clusters have been studied and understood as a fact for decades; look no further than the Detroit automotive industry for an example of this phenomenon. With creative industries, the access to a shared pool of knowledgeable labor is the main reason for this geographic arrangement. In “Cluster and Film Performance in Project-Based Industries,” author

Mathijs De Vaan et al. conclude through quantifiable research that studios benefit from clustering after the “cluster exceeds a critical size.”7 This explains why the video game industry is overwhelmingly represented in Canada’s largest cities. This will be necessary to understand when the examining the city industries.

With an understanding of the sector of the economy that video games fall in, let us turn to Canadian economic history, the richest of the topics discussed in this paper. Academic economic history in Canada begins in the early 20th century and grew to become a large part of the national historical tradition. Since this period, economic history has changed drastically. This section will briefly cover 80 years of

Canadian economic history, from Harold Innis’ work in the 1930’s until the present.8

This section is limited in relation to the entirety of Canadian economic history but covers the major themes and perspectives in the history of the field.

7 Mathijs De Vaan, Ron Boschma, and Koen Frenken, “Clustering and Firm Performance in Project-Based Industries: the Case of the Global Video Game Industry, 1972-2007,” Journal of Economic Geography 13 (2013): 966. 8 The list of sources for this section was largely taken from the introduction of Kenneth Norrie, Douglas Owram and J.C. Herbert Emery, A History of the Canadian Economy, 4th edition (Toronto: Thomson Nelson, 2008), ix-xii.

4

Harold Innis’ The Fur Trade in Canada,9 published originally in 1930, looks at the influence of colonial powers on the Canadian economy and argues that the exploitation of available furs by colonial powers shaped the history of Canada. The book is so fixated on staples that the introduction is dedicated to explaining the beaver as Innis argues, “it is impossible to understand characteristic developments of the trade or of Canadian history without some knowledge of its life and habits.”10

Innis is one of the most influential Canadian economic historians and was a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto. His work largely focused on the impact of staples on the Canadian economy and helped structure the theory that Canada’s development was bound by the extraction of staples across the country over time.11 This theory has since shifted and recent authors have abandoned the reduction of the Canadian economy entirely to raw resources.

However, the point is that the origins of Canadian economy history are reductionist and the lack of creative industries representation in subsequent literature is reflective of this methodology.

By the 1950’s Canadian economic history evolved to include a wider range of topics and industries. W.T. Easterbrook and Hugh G.J. Aitken’s Canadian Economic

History12 was one of the products of this period of improved economic history.

However, it still suffers from some of the problems with Innis’ work. Aitken and

9 Harold A. Innis, The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic History, Revised Edition (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1956). 10 Innis, Fur Trade, 3. 11 For more on the staples thesis of Harold Innis see Thomas A. Hutton, “Contours of the Post-Staples State: The Reconstruction of Political Economy and Social Identity in 21st Century Canada,” in Policy and Society 26, 1 (2007): 10. 12 W.T. Easterbrook and Hugh G.J. Aitken, Canadian Economic History (Toronto: Macmillan, 1956).

5

Easterbrook both studied under Innis in their time at the University of Toronto and therefore, while this work expands upon Innis’ Fur Trade, it shares similar methodology. Canadian Economic History includes the rise of manufacturing and pays particular attention to international influences, especially American making it more valuable than Innis’ work. However, a problem with their book, which is shared amongst Innis’ work, is these works reduce political policy, international forces, technological changes, and other large themes as the whole reasons for the state of the economy without giving the agency to individuals or businesses. Early

Canadian economy history examines the economy and Canada as a whole from the top-down, which comes from using political-economic theory.

In the decades after Easterbrook and Aitken’s book, economic history was lost in the overall social history movement and new theory that came out of economics.13 Kenneth Norrie et al.’s A History of the Canadian Economy used the nearly 40 years since Easterbrook and Aitken’s book to rework the methods used by the authors before them. The authors use “a synthesis of several areas of scholarship: traditional economic-history writings, the new economic history and modern social history.”14 A History of the Canadian Economy combines top-down and bottom-up perspectives in their research. As well, manufacturing factors into this work as a crucial part of the Canadian economy. Their work diversifies the

Canadian economy and includes mentions of individual company involvement. This broadening of available views is an important step forward for Canadian economic history.

13 Norrie, Owram and Emery, Canadian Economy, xii. 14 Norrie, Owram and Emery, Canadian Economy, xii.

6

Another aspect that A History of the Canadian Economy implements well is the idea that the Canadian economy undergoes drastic and impactful changes. These changes profoundly and drastically affect the country in every facet of life. The transition to manufacturing was politically and socially impactful nationwide.15 This transition is taking place now, albeit to a lesser extent, with the migration of manufacturing and growth of the creative economy. Therefore understanding the impact a national economic transition entails is valuable.

While this book is an improvement on economic history books, there are still limitations to its usefulness. The creative economy is lost in the larger context of the

Canadian economy, which limits economic history books to overall theory and methodology. This work includes more bottom-up views than previous economic works but still favors understanding the economy from the above vantage point. As a whole, economic history favors examining history from top-down, something that will be reworked with the advent of business history.

The distinction between the business and economic history is difficult to determine as they cover much of the same material. However, the separation exists in perspective. Economic history takes a top-down view and interjects views of individuals when necessary but business history reverses this formula, focusing on individual companies with the larger picture aspects used to provide context.

Surprisingly, there is not a large amount of academic business history.16 Like other aspects of this historiography, those outside of the historical profession have taken

15 Norrie, Owram and Emery, Canadian Economy, 212. 16 Joe Martin, Relentless Change: A Casebook for the Study of Canadian Business History (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), xi.

7

up business history and more generally, outside of academia. However, there are a few books that cover this subject.

Michael Bliss is a pioneer of Canadian business history. Prior to Northern

Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business17, there was little in the way of an overall business history. The work on Northern Enterprise began with his PhD dissertation and culminated after receiving corporate support from Manufacturers

Life Insurance.18 The style of writing is unique in that it is dense and well researched but written without footnotes as if intended for a general audience. As well, the scope is massive and his text suffers as it is unable to truly delve deep into any one subject. However, while the text suffers from what is perhaps best described as over-ambition, there are some aspects that are well done. His focus on the individual and the struggles that occurred within business itself through the lens of these individuals was well done. In particular, the chapter “At War with Business” dealt with the stresses and tensions of businessmen, workers, and the state and gives viewpoints for each of these groups. Bliss’ book is an extension of the economic history literature that came before it but provides a different outlook. The social history movement has impacted the way in which business and economic topics are discussed, with a bigger emphasis on the former rather than the later.

Canadian business history is best described as a compliment and extension of

Canadian economic history. Combined, these fields give a complete view of industry, business, and economics. However, even together there are problems when relating

17 Michael Bliss, Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1987). 18 Bliss, Northern Enterprise, 7.

8

to the history of the video game industry. The creative economy and services in general are largely downplayed in this realm of research. This is likely due to the fact that, especially in Eastern and Central Canada, the creative economy was marginal until recently. This could indicate that location has an effect on the growth of literature. As well, while the growth of social history has altered the perspective in which business and economic history is told in, it has also reduced the amount of recent literature.

There is plenty to take from these works though. The comparison of business and economic history reveals that when covering an industry, the agency of large and small forces both need to be included. Political economic theory has its merits but reduces the succession of business and the economy to broad changes while ignoring what occurs at the micro level. As well, the literature demands for coverage of the creative economy in Canada. The transition from staples to manufacturing economy appeared in the later economic history works including Norrie et al.’s book but a similar change is occurring with manufacturing and the creative economy.

While video games grew out of American computer industry, they follow a distribution model similar to that of film.19 The film industry is the closest related industry to video games in Canada and the major themes that are brought up in their works are useful for comparison’s sake. As well, film has received the most scholarship of Canada’s creative industries and observing how it has been written about by academics might shed light on how the video game industry could be researched.

19 Randy Nichols, The Video Game Business (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 12.

9

Manjunath Pendakur is a professor at Florida Atlantic University out of the school of communications and media studies. He received his PhD from Simon

Fraser University in British Columbia, which explains some of his interest in the

Canadian film industry. His focus of research is the political economy of communications, specifically in relation to the film industry. His early research career centered on American influence in the Canadian film industry, which culminated in Canadian Dreams & American Control: The Political Economy of the

Canadian Film Industry.20 In this book, Pendakur argues that the film industry is an example of Canada’s role as a cultural colony of the United States. He maps the industry from the beginning of the 20th century until the 1980’s and pays particular attention to government policy. He argues that several government policies, particularly the Capital Cost Allowance Program, aided in the construction of a

Canadian industry that produced films intended for an international rather than

Canadian audience.21 The political economic view that Pendakur uses provides plenty to aid in understanding the political, social, economic, and international forces that influence the film industry.

Contrasting this work is David Pike’s Canadian Cinema since the 1980’s.22 Pike is a literature professor at American University. His book is drastically different than

Pendakur’s work. It focuses almost exclusively on films and filmmaking, foregoing the economics for a cultural approach. While he mentions the change in policy with

20 Manjunath Pendakur, Canadian Dreams & American Control: The Political Economy of the Canadian Film Industry (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990). 21 Pendakur, Canadian Dreams, 170-179. 22 David L. Pike, Canadian Cinema since the 1980’s: At the Heart of the World (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012).

10

the death of the Capital Cost Allowance Program as a reason for the rise of Canadian film industry content, he uses successful individuals as proof of its continued growth afterwards. For example, Pike pays particular attention to David Cronenberg’s unique filmmaking style and its influence on Canadian filmmakers as an example of the creation of a Canadian genre of film.23 This work is problematic in that it ignores the larger forces that influence the industry as a whole but certainly acknowledges individual agency better than Pendakur. Neither of these methods provides a complete understanding of the industry. Rather, what can be gained from this exercise is awareness that a hybrid methodology is the best way of understanding this industry as a whole.

This section gave broad context to keep in mind when examining the

Canadian video game industry. Through an examination of creative economy theory;

Canadian business and economic history; and the Canadian film industry, an understanding of where the video game industry could fit in a historical framework has been explored. Already, issues with the scholarship have appeared.

Methodology in terms of perspective is a major issue in Canadian economic and business history. Political economic theory is popular when examining the Canadian economy but that completely ignores the role that low level individuals and companies play. Business history attempts to remedy this but lacks a development in scholarship beyond Bliss and Naylor’s work. Even when examining Canadian film industry literature, the works tend to lean too far towards macro or microanalysis, where perhaps a single approach is not enough. Norrie et al.’s Canadian Economy

23 Pike, Canadian Cinema, 203.

11

was the most powerful of these works as it combined methods from a variety of disciplines. That is the key here, that an interdisciplinary approach is the most effective when examining a complicated topic like the Canadian video game industry. These problems will surface in the next section as well, as this paper surveys video game research.

Video Game Research

Video game research is much less expansive than economic or business history. However, there is enough literature to create a more complete understanding of Canada’s industry. The research brought forward here will range from incredibly broad with game studies to a more narrowed focus with the study of individual cities and studios. The purpose of this is to understand what broader conclusions are reached in the most basic examination of games all the way down to specific details within the micro-industries. This section will cover game studies; history of video games worldwide; Canada’s industry; and specific studies of cities and studios.

Video games were born in the 1960’s24 but arguably only gained positive mainstream recognition in the late 1990’s and early 21st century.25 Game studies is an emerging field that researches the impact of games – specifically video games – as cultural media objects. Studying the video game industry in Canada does not

24 Tristan Donovan, Replay: The History of Video Games (Yellow Ant: East Sussex, 2010), 10-11. 25 Around this time, video games began to overtake film as the biggest cultural product worldwide. See Randy Nichols, “Who Plays, Who Pays? Mapping Video Game Production and Consumption Globally,” in Gaming Globally: Production, Play, and Place, ed. Nina B. Huntemann and Ben Aslinger (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 19-20.

12

require surveying video games themselves but understanding the history of academic video game scholarship helps explain not only the lack of research but the fact that the majority of it was published within the last decade. Mia Consalvo is a communications professor at Concordia University and the Canada Research Chair of Game Studies & Design and her research in video game studies is extensive. Her article, “The Future of Game Studies,” examines the emergence of game studies and where it will go but for the purpose of this topic, the past is the main concern. As a relatively new field, Consalvo argues that game studies is “still in the process of inventing itself.”26 The industry is changing at a rapid rate and studies are forced to adapt to the evolving industry.

Consalvo also explores the earliest research into video games, which involved trying to link video game violence with real world aggression in gamers. By the 1980’s video games had captured the attention of parents and government officials who wished to find out if video games were harmful.27 The answer to this question is still publically debated despite the fact that recent studies suggest that gaming in small doses may in fact be healthy and beneficial.28 Toby Miller argues in

“Gaming for Beginners” that every new cultural technology has been received with hesitation because they “threaten… the established order.”29 This paper is not here to argue this point but rather address what the nature of game studies says about

26 Consalvo, “Future of Game Studies,” 118. 27 Consalvo, “Future of Game Studies,” 119-120. 28 Emily Gosden, “Playing video games for up to an hour a day 'is good for children',” Telegraph, August 4, 2014, accessed November 28, 2014, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11008989/Playing-video-games- for-up-to-an-hour-a-day-is-good-for-children.html. 29 Toby Miller, “Gaming for Beginners,” Games and Culture 1, 1 (2006): 7.

13

the historiography of the video game industry. A negativity still surround video games meaning that it is difficult engaging academics with preconceived notions in meaningful discussions about their merits and values. A generational gap is impeding the growth of this research area but the rise of a generation that have only ever known a world dominated by video games should expand this literature considerably over the next decade.

The study of video games is still in its infancy. Research began only in the

1980’s and researchers were more interested in their potential harmful effects than what could be learned from them. This initial apprehension helps explain the lack of literature on the video game industry as a whole. As well, new cultural media takes time to gain traction in academia. When examining film studies, we find a similar trajectory to game studies. While there was scattered academic literature in the first half of the 20th century, it took decades before it gained serious credibility as an art form and received coverage in academia. The SAGE Handbook of Film Studies argues the opening of the film section in the Museum of Modern Arts (MoMA) as a turning point in the history of film studies.30 Coincidentally, the MoMA announced that video games would become a part of their collection in late 2012.31 With this news along with the factors described before, there is potential for the emergence of a broader historiography of video game history in the coming years.

30 Dana Polan, “North America,” in The SAGE Handbook of Film Studies, ed. James Donald and Michael Renov (Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2008), 10-19. 31 “Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters,” Museum of Modern Art, November 29, 2012, accessed November 30, 2014, http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the- collection-for-starters/.

14

The history of the video game industry has been well covered in the last two decades. However, those outside of the historical field have largely taken up this work. In particular, amateur historians and journalists have taken the responsibility in writing the industry’s history. Outside of amateur historians, the majority of academic video game histories have arisen from the field of communications.

Studying the works of these two groups, amateur historians and communications academics, allows for a comparison is drastically different methodologies.

The gold standard in video game history literature is Tristan Donovan’s

Replay: The History of Video Games. His book begins at the Second World, progresses to the birth of the video game industry and ends with broader themes in present day video games. Replay is comprehensive, deep in detail and covers the industry from an international perspective. Replay goes beyond the borders of Japan and the

United States by looking at the development of industries in South Korea, Europe, and Australia. As well, as Replay is a recent publication, it covers new issues and themes that have arisen in the last decade of video gaming like the rise of online play, the indie game, and modding culture. Replay offers a wide-ranged understanding of the industry and is the best. Prior to Replay, Steven Kent’s The

Ultimate History of Video Games32 was the largest history of video games available and is still cited to this day. Released nine years prior to Replay, Kent’s book does not cover the present due to its age but still provides a thorough examination of the

32 Steven L. Kent, The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon and Beyond - The Story Behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the World (New York: Prima Publishing, 2001).

15

birth and rise of the video games. That said, Kent’s book provides less international content, leaving the book with a US centered focus.

Replay and The Ultimate History of Video Games contain similar structures and information. As such, there are shared flaws to these two works. Steven L. Kent is a journalist, not an academic. He spent most of his career writing video game reviews for the Seattle Times before becoming a military science fiction novelist.

Tristan Donovan has stayed in video game journalism but, like Kent, is not an academic historian. Their books are designed to tell stories about the growth of a medium and its subsequent industry but are uncritical. This is in part due to the long era that these books cover. These books attempt to cover decades of video game history and as such the books tend to gloss over the details rather than deeply discussing the meaning behind them. These works are incredibly useful in the information and perspective they provide but are limited because of the lack of academic structure.

Video game history has been covered by academics outside the history field.

Randy Nichols, a professor of English and Media Studies at Bentley University, has critically written on the video game industry throughout his career. His latest book,

The Video Game Business, studies in depth the inner workings of the industry including marketing practices and, more relevant to this topic, the video game industry model. As well, he includes an industrial history of video games early on in his book, which provides a critical interpretation of the industry’s history, especially in comparison to Kent or Donovan’s books. As well, despite looking at the industry as a whole, Nichols manages to provide some perspective from the individuals

16

companies by including case studies that explore various actors within the industry and how their studios came to be. Nichols book provides a holistic approach to the industry and succeeds in looking at both big picture and smaller aspects.

The works of Nick Dyer-Witheford and Greig de Peuter in the study of video games should be noted here. A professor out of the Faculty of Information and

Media Studies at the University of Western Ontario, Nick Dyer-Witheford researches the political economy of creative economies. Greig de Peuter is a Communications professor at Wilfred Laurier University with similar focuses of study. In 2003, the two collaborated with Steven Kline to publish Digital Play: The Interaction of Culture,

Technology, and Marketing.33 The book uses the video game industry as a case study when exploring the connections between different forces, as is indicated by the title.

These authors spend the whole second section of the book – nearly 100 pages – examining the history of the video game industry. This history that Kline et al. provide is an excellent template for conducting critical analysis of the industry.

Six years later, Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter published another book, Games of Empire.34 This work argues, “video games are a paradigmatic media of Empire.”35

Like in Digital Play, their history does not span the whole book but still is sizeable.

Games of Empire’s history is written with the workers’ perspective in mind. It examines how at first video game developers were unrepresented in their creations and grew to create new publishers that acknowledged their work. This history of

33 Stephen Kline, Greig de Peuter and Nick Dyer-Witheford, Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2003). 34 Greig de Peuter and Nick Dyer-Witheford, Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and Video Games (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009). 35 Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter, Games of Empire, xv.

17

the industry looks through the eyes of those that work within the industry, providing a history through the lens of actual people. This lines up their history closer with that of Donovan and Kent in that the political and economic factors take a back seat to the labor and social issues of the industry. This history starkly contrasts their previous history by completely changing the perspective from which it is told.

Video game history varies greatly in the way it is told. Amateur histories from Donovan and Kent provide a broad overview of the industry with little relation to broader issues of history. Meanwhile academic history has taken a variety of views when writing on the industry. However, most tend to look at the industry from a top-down perspective and ignore the social aspects. Games of Empire is an exception to this trend but the larger political and economic impacts suffer because of this. Nichols is the closest to combining these methods but his history is too short to be truly impactful.

While overall video game history has received scholarship, the Canadian industry has largely been forgotten in favor of other national industries. Historically, the biggest video game nations are the United States and Japan.36 Other nations have grown thriving industries and this is reflected in Donovan’s Replay with the coverage of Europe, Australia and Korea. Canada has not been widely present in these larger histories but there have been publications written on the national industry within the last decade with most published in the years since 2010.

36 The majority of the largest video game publishers worldwide are American or Japanese owned corporations. See Casey O’Donnell, “The North American Game Industry,” in The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future, ed. Peter Zackariasson and Timothy L. Wilson (New York: Routledge, 2012), 106.

18

When looking at the Canadian industry the works of Nick Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter again prove fruitful. In Dyer-Witheford’s article with Zena Sharman from the University of British Columbia, “The Political Economy of Canada’s Game

Industry,”37 they examine the contradictions that exist within the Canadian industry and how the forces around them play out. These contradictions include the lack of

Canadian ownership and government subsidies, common themes among other

Canadian video game industry works. Dyer-Witheford and Sharman also cover the attempted regulation of video games in North America and the types of government forces that influence the industry. Government intervention is an important aspect in Canada’s video game history and directly relate to the ongoing literature on the creative economy. The larger issues and influences of the Canadian industry are outlined well in Dyer-Witheford and Sharman’s article. However, the piece is limited by its political economic methodology, much like early Canadian economic history.

This is a common theme in other Canadian video game literature.

Greig de Peuter covers the history of the industry in more detail than Dyer-

Witheford in “Video Games Production: Level Up.”38 De Peuter’s book chapter opens with the founding of Distinctive Software by Don Mattrick and Jeff Sember, which is widely considered the beginning of the video game industry in Canada. However, much like Dyer-Witheford’s article, de Peuter’s piece is largely examined from top- down. Namely, the role government plays in the industry and international actors.

37 Nick Dyer-Witheford and Zena Sharman, “The Political Economy of Canada’s Video Game and Computer Industry,” Canadian Journal of Communication 30 (2005): 187-210. 38 Greig de Peuter, “Canada’s Video Game Production: Level Up,” in Cultural Industries.ca: Making Sense of Canadian Media in the Digital Age, ed. Ira Wagman and Peter Urquhart (Toronto: Lorimer, 2012), 77-93.

19

Mia Consalvo in “the Canadian Video Game Industry,”39 tackles the issue similar to de Peuter. Consalvo includes a historical case study of Bioware, an Edmonton-based game developer, in her piece. By including this, Consalvo succeeds in including history of individual developers. Consalvo’s model is similar to the one that Nichols provides in The Video Game Business and this method is quite successful in critically analyzing the industry.

While these authors provide a good take on the video game industry, there are limitations to their work in a historical context. One such problem is the issue of perspective. This problem is somewhat resolved when looking at city specific industry pieces but largely the Canadian video game industry is observed from a top-down perspective, ignoring the role that individual studios play and rather focusing on larger overall forces. While de Peuter, Dyer-Witheford, Consalvo and other authors provide meaningful analysis, the lack of historian involvement is concerning as their histories are done well but it means that understanding the current problems within the industry is the primary focus for these authors. The information in this literature is still useful and in particular Mia Consalvo’s piece is a good example of how one might organize a historical piece, in looking at the larger industry first before examining the industry at a micro level. However, it is still important to understand the limitations behind these sources.

Many authors have chosen to write about a city’s video game industry rather than the Canadian industry as a whole. As was discussed earlier, the video game

39 Mia Consalvo, “The Canadian Video Game Industry,” in Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication 4th Edition, ed. Paul Attallah and Leslie Regan Shade (Toronto: Nelson Education, 2013), 238-253.

20

industry clusters in creative urban areas. The cities of Vancouver, Montreal, and

Toronto have become the main areas of video game development in Canada and these three city-industries have received independent scholarship. The literature surrounding them varies as each of the three cities developed a video game industry at different times and under unique circumstances.

Vancouver has become one of Canada’s most creative cities and contains the oldest industry of the three city clusters. Trevor Barnes is a professor of geography at the University of British Columbia with a focus on Vancouver’s economic geography. In “Vancouver as media cluster: the cases of video game and film/TV,”40 him and Neil M. Coe examines Vancouver’s creative industry growth through the lens of film and video games. This chapter provides an excellent economic history of

Vancouver prior to examining the industry itself. Barnes and Coe argue that the fall of the staples economy in Vancouver, which began in the 70’s, forced the city to transition its economy towards a knowledge economy. The chapter also discusses, in more detail, how Distinctive Interactive and its subsequent purchase in 1991 factored into the growth of the industry. As well, by examining both film and video game industries, the chapter examines the shared labor amongst the two and how both influence the role that education and government institutes play in maintaining the creative industries. This connection made with the film industry provides a larger understanding of the creative economy of Vancouver while also giving credit to the individual companies that influenced the growth of this sector.

40 Trevor Barnes and Neil M. Coe, “Vancouver as media cluster: the cases of video games and film/TV,” in Media Clusters: Spatial Agglomeration and Content Capabilities, ed. Charlie Karlsson and Robert G. Picard (Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011), 251-277.

21

One aspect that the Barnes and Coe downplay is the proximity to West Coast

America. While not specific to the video game industry, Brian Wixted and J. Adam

Holbrook’s “Innovation, Cities and Place: An Empirical Study of the Knowledge

System in Vancouver and Its Place on the Pacific Rim”41 makes this the focus of their article. Wixted and Holbrook are both academics from Simon Fraser University –

Wixted, a PhD Fellow and Holbrook, a professor – out of the Centre for Policy

Research on Science and Technology. They argue that with limited travel available between Eastern and Western Canada, Vancouver developed in what he calls the

‘Pacific Rim’ system, which would economically locate it closer to the Silicon Valley region than the rest of Canada. Both Barnes and Coe, and Wixted and Holbrook provide useful information when understanding the growth of the video game industry in Canada but examining different aspects shows the multi-faceted nature of the industry and the various angles of it that can be examined.

Quebec contains the biggest video game industry in Canada, led by Montreal, and boasts the nation’s largest studio as well in Ubisoft Montreal.42 Ubisoft is a major player in nearly all of the works on the Montreal game industry. In Diane-

Gabrielle Tremblay and Serge Rousseau’s “The Montreal Multimedia Sector: A

Cluster, a New Mode of Governance or a Simple Co-location,”43 the authors argue that Ubisoft’s arrival played a major part in developing the city into a multimedia

41 Brian Wixted and J. Adam Holbrook, “Innovation, Cities and Place: An Empirical Study of the Knowledge System in Vancouver and Its Place on the Pacific Rim,” in Practice-Based Innovation: Insights, Applications and Policy Implications, ed. H. Melkas and V. Harmaakorpi (Berlin: Springer, 2012), 323-344. 42 “2014 Essential Facts,” Entertainment Software Association of Canada. 43 Diane-Gabrielle Tremblay and Serge Rousseau, “The Montreal Multimedia Sector: A Cluster, a New Mode of Governance or a Simple Co-location?,” Canadian Journal of Regional Science 28, 2 (Summer 2005): 299-328.

22

cluster. The authors use interviews as a large part of their sourcing from government and industry sources. Through the direct quotations they provide in- text it is clear from these quotations that Ubisoft is heralded on an individual level within the industry. Tremblay and Rousseau argue that the tax credit that the studio received when it first arrived in 1999 influenced all tax policy in the multimedia sector. Through telling the individual story of a studio, Tremblay and Rousseau manage to reach broader conclusions on the nature of Montreal’s creative sector as a whole. This perspective is different than Dyer-Witheford and Sharman’s when they looked at the industry as a whole but contained many of the same themes. Both perspectives could be infinitely valuable if used together.

Toronto’s video game industry is the most difficult to research of the three city industries as, until very recently, Toronto did not possess an anchor studio and its industry was marginal as a reflection of this. Daniel Joseph’s article “The Toronto

Indies: Some Assemblage Required” attempts to understand the Toronto industry through the method of creating ‘indie’ games. Before Ubisoft Toronto’s founding in

2009, Toronto’s industry boasted a thriving community of small studios with no associated publisher or indie studios.44 Born from his Master’s thesis, Joseph uses

Assemblage Theory to show the influence of government and trade organizations on the process of making games. Joseph’s article looks specifically at one studio,

44 The term indie is largely influx in the gaming community but this definition will suffice; Katie Rook, “Toronto’s Indie Gaming Scene Levels Up,” The Globe and Mail, last updated August 23, 2012, accessed December 1, 2014, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/torontos-indie-gaming-scene- levels-up/article1314195/.

23

Capybara Games, in explaining these forces and succeeds in explaining how this applies to the larger industry.

The video game industry grew out of a larger creative rise in Toronto. There exists literature that covers the creative industries as a whole, which emerged earlier with the rise of the Toronto film industry. Charles H. Davis takes this broader approach in “The Toronto media cluster: between culture and commerce.”45 As opposed to Joseph’s take on the city, Davis examines the various sub-sectors within the city, the interactions within the media cluster, and the international forces that influence the industries, namely the United States. While this chapter does not touch on the games industry directly, its larger principles apply to the success of Toronto’s game sector and how it came to be.

The literature on city-specific game industries is drastically different than that of the overall Canadian game industry works. These works contain a narrower scope than the overall historiography this paper is attempting to compile but give the greatest variety in methodology. Trembley and Rousseau examined government policy from a bottom-up perspective while Barnes and Coe look at Vancouver from the top-down to explain their video game industry. Even amongst city industries, the perspective and methodology differ greatly.

This last section will be short but observing how the history of video games is evolving would be incomplete without examining the microhistories of video

45 Charles H. Davis, “The Toronto media cluster: between culture and commerce,” in Media Clusters: Spatial Agglomeration and Content Capabilities, ed. Charlie Karlsson and Robert G. Picard (Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011), 223-250.

24

game studios.46 While there are other examples of this, the work by IGN editors

Mitch Dyer and Colin Moriarty are particularly well done and as such will be the focus of this section. IGN is a video game journalism site that generally focuses on news and video game updates. However, certain features break from this norm including some pieces by the aforementioned authors. Colin Moriarty’s “Rising to

Greatness: The History of Naughty Dog,”47 covers the company from its inception in the 80’s until the present. The piece pays particular attention to the lives of Mark

Cerny, Jason Rubin, and other key individuals in the history of the studio. Mitch

Dyer’s “House of Dreams: The Ubisoft Montreal Story,”48 follows a similar pattern to

Moriarty’s in a focus on individuals. These pieces could be considered microhistories but much like Kent and Donovan’s books they do not apply the events of these studios to larger trends. The amateurism of their history is exemplified in that regard but their work is still useful as it provides a bottom-up view of the industry, which is rarely seen in academic works.

This section began with a broad look at video game studies as a whole and slowly narrowed the scope to specific studios histories. Through this, a number of overall trends can be observed. The recent nature of these studies is indicative of the lack of overall research in the field. Returning to the point made during the

46 This section knowledge-shares from a previously published blog post from the author: David R. Hussey, “Historical Infiltration of Video Game Journalism,” Play the Past, March 27, 2014, accessed December 3, 2014, http://www.playthepast.org/?p=4584. 47 Colin Moriarty, “Rising to Greatness: The History of Naughty Dog,” IGN, October 4, 2013, accessed December 3, 2014, http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/10/04/rising- to-greatness-the-history-of-naughty-dog. 48 Mitch Dyer, “House of Dreams: The Ubisoft Story,” IGN, February 3, 2014, accessed December 3, 2014, http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/02/03/house-of- dreams-the-ubisoft-montreal-story.

25

examination of game studies, video games have only gained respect and notice within academic scholarship in the last 10-15 years. From Randy Nichols, “[t]he formal study of video games is just beginning. As games have gained in popularity, with expanding audiences and incorporation of more sophisticated technologies, they are now recognized as a unique embodiment of culture worthy of study.”49

Hopefully, this lack of literature is not permanent and a new wave of academic video game literature will come with the maturity of the Nintendo generation.

The growth of video game scholarship is not uniform across academia.

Authorship is a concern in this field as scholars outside of history are taking it upon themselves to discuss the history of video games. Amateur historians like Steven

Kent, Tristan Donovan, and Colin Moriarty have written comprehensive histories but their works lack the academic criticality necessary to draw meaningful conclusions. Despite the lack of history scholars, the works reviewed here are deep.

Conclusion

Covering the history of the Canadian video game industry requires a combination of methods and perspectives in order to do the topic justice. While examining the industry from top-down may reveal the role larger forces played, it ignores how studios, like EA Canada or Ubisoft Montreal, have been influential in shaping the industry. The reverse extreme is no better, as looking at individuals from a bottom-up perspective forgets that without government tax credits, a studio like Ubisoft Montreal may have landed elsewhere. While each of these methods tells

49 Nichols, The Video Game Business, 3.

26

something about the video game industry, without both methods a whole picture is unachievable.

The historiography of the Canadian video game industry is complicated.

There is little directly related scholarship and even less related material out of history. The pieces span across a variety of interdisciplinary topics and combine the research of amateurs and academics alike. The problems with authorship and perspective make determining how to approach a topic like this difficult. The very structure of this paper is indicative of the problematic nature of this topic. A separation exists between historical and video game research that makes it nearly impossible to find a model from which to build historical video game research.

Overall, history is not involved in writing the history of video games. This is not meant to condemn the historical profession but rather call attention to a concerning trend.

The video game industry is growing in Canada and furthering the larger creative economy. According the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, public opinion is growing in favor of the industry as Canadians are recognizing the benefits of it.50 The industry is not without its flaws; it has enough to warrant its own article. However, the point is not that the public likes the industry but rather that they are interested in it. This interest hopefully will help give birth to historians that can explore the industry and video games in general.

50 “62% of Canadians believe the video game industry is an innovative sector, which is helping to shape the Canadian economy of the future.” See “2014 Essential Facts,” Entertainment Software Association of Canada.

27

Bibliography

Barnes, Trevor and Neil M. Coe. “Vancouver as media cluster: the cases of video

games and film/TV.” In Media Clusters: Spatial Agglomeration and Content

Capabilities, edited by Charlie Karlsson and Robert G. Picard, 251-277.

Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011.

Bliss, Michael. Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business. Toronto:

McClelland and Stewart, 1987.

Consalvo, Mia. “The Canadian Video Game Industry.” In Mediascapes: New Patterns

in Canadian Communication, 4th Edition, edited by Paul Attallah and Leslie

Regan Shade, 238-253. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2013.

Consalvo, Mia. “The Future of Game Studies.” In The International Encyclopedia of

Media Studies, Volume VI, Media Studies Futures, edited by Angharad N.

Valdivia et al., 117-139. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014.

Davis, Charles H. “The Toronto media cluster: between culture and commerce.” In

Media Clusters: Spatial Agglomeration and Content Capabilities. Edited by

Charlie Karlsson and Robert G. Picard, 223-250. Northampton: Edward Elgar

Publishing, 2011.

De Vaan, Mathijs, Ron Boschma, and Koen Frenken. “Clustering and Firm

Performance in Project-Based Industries: the Case of the Global Video Game

Industry, 1972-2007.” Journal of Economic Geography 13 (2013): 965-991. de Peuter, Greig. “Canada’s Video Game Production: Level Up.” In Cultural

Industries.ca: Making Sense of Canadian Media in the Digital Age, edited by Ira

Wagman and Peter Urquhart, 77-93. Toronto: Lorimer, 2012.

28

de Peuter, Greig and Nick Dyer-Witheford. Games of Empire: Global Capitalism and

Video Games. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

Donovan, Tristan. Replay: The History of Video Games. Yellow Ant: East Sussex, 2010.

Dyer, Mitch. “House of Dreams: The Ubisoft Story.” IGN. February 3, 2014. Accessed

December 3, 2014. http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/02/03/house-of-

dreams-the-ubisoft-montreal-story.

Dyer-Witheford, Nick and Zena Sharman. “The Political Economy of Canada’s Video

Game and Computer Industry.” Canadian Journal of Communication 30

(2005): 187-210.

Easterbrook, W.T. and Hugh G.J. Aitken. Canadian Economic History. Toronto:

Macmillan, 1956.

Entertainment Software Association of Canada. “2014 Essential Facts about the

Canadian Video Game Industry.” 2014. Accessed December 1, 2014.

http://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ESAC-Essential-Facts-

2014.pdf.

EY. Creating growth: measuring cultural and creative markets in the EU. December

2014. Accessed December 9, 2014,

http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY-Creating-Growth-

Measuring-Cultural-and-Creative-Markets-in-the-EU/$FILE/EY-Creating-

Growth-Measuring-Cultural-and-Creative-Markets-in-the-EU.pdf.

Gosden, Emily. “Playing video games for up to an hour a day 'is good for children'.”

Telegraph, August 4, 2014. Accessed November 28, 2014.

29

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11008989/Playing-video-

games-for-up-to-an-hour-a-day-is-good-for-children.html.

Hesmondhalgh, David. The Cultural Industries, 3rd Edition. London: Sage, 2013.

Hussey, David R. “Historical Infiltration of Video Game Journalism.” Play the Past,

March 27, 2014. Accessed December 3, 2014.

http://www.playthepast.org/?p=4584.

Hutton, Thomas A. “Contours of the Post-Staples State: The Reconstruction of

Political Economy and Social Identity in 21st Century Canada.” In Policy and

Society 26, 1 (2007): 9-29.

Innis, Harold A. The Fur Trade in Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Economic

History, Revised Edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1956.

Kent, Steven L. The Ultimate History of Video Games: From Pong to Pokemon and

Beyond - The Story Behind the Craze that Touched Our Lives and Changed the

World. New York: Prima Publishing, 2001.

Kline, Stephen. Greig de Peuter and Nick Dyer-Witheford. Digital Play: The

Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s

University Press, 2003.

Martin, Joe. Relentless Change: A Casebook for the Study of Canadian Business History.

Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010.

Miller, Toby. “Gaming for Beginners.” Games and Culture 1, 1 (2006): 5-12.

Moriarty, Colin. “Rising to Greatness: The History of Naughty Dog.” IGN, October 4,

2013. Accessed December 3, 2014.

30

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/10/04/rising-to-greatness-the-history-of-

naughty-dog.

Museum of Modern Art. “Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters.” November

29, 2012. Accessed November 30, 2014.

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-

in-the-collection-for-starters/.

Nichols, Randy. The Video Game Business. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Nichols, Randy. “Who Plays, Who Pays? Mapping Video Game Production and

Consumption Globally.” In Gaming Globally: Production, Play, and Place,

edited by Nina B. Huntemann and Ben Aslinger, 19-39. New York: Palgrave

Macmillan, 2013.

Norrie, Kenneth, Douglas Owram and J.C. Herbert Emery. A History of the Canadian

Economy, 4th Edition. Toronto: Thomson Nelson, 2008.

O’Donnell, Casey. “The North American Game Industry.” In The Video Game Industry:

Formation, Present State, and Future, edited by Peter Zackariasson and

Timothy L. Wilson, 99-115. New York: Routledge, 2012.

Parkinson, David. “Rob Insight Economy: A Wake-Up Call from Straight-Talking

Poloz.” Globe and Mail, October 23, 2014. Accessed November 15, 2014.

Accessed through Scholars Portal.

Pendakur, Manjunath. Canadian Dreams & American Control: The Political Economy

of the Canadian Film Industry. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1990.

Pike, David L. Canadian Cinema since the 1980’s: At the Heart of the World. Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 2012.

31

Polan, Dana. “North America.” In The SAGE Handbook of Film Studies, edited by

James Donald and Michael Renov, 9-24. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications,

2008.

Rook, Katie. “Toronto’s Indie Gaming Scene Levels Up.” The Globe and Mail, last

updated August 23, 2012. Accessed December 1, 2014.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/torontos-indie-gaming-

scene-levels-up/article1314195/.

Throsby, David. The Economics of Cultural Policy. New York: Cambridge University

Press, 2010.

Tsaparis, Paul. “Canada must develop our knowledge economy.” Globe and Mail,

April 27, 2014. Accessed December 3, 2014.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-

lab/canada-must-develop-our-knowledge-economy/article18229988/.

Tremblay, Diane-Gabrielle and Serge Rousseau. “The Montreal Multimedia Sector: A

Cluster, a New Mode of Governance or a Simple Co-location?” Canadian

Journal of Regional Science 28, 2 (Summer 2005): 299-328.

Wixted, Brian and J. Adam Holbrook. “Innovation, Cities and Place: An Empirical

Study of the Knowledge System in Vancouver and Its Place on the Pacific

Rim.” In Practice-Based Innovation: Insights, Applications and Policy

Implications, edited by H. Melkas and V. Harmaakorpi, 323-344. Berlin:

Springer, 2012.

32