XP Gaming drew greater than 700 individuals to its 2024 XP Recreation Developer Summit in Toronto, Canada, final week to listen to talks about mental property and recreation growth.
I went to the occasion and moderated a panel. It was good to take heed to talks and speak about what it takes to maintain recreation communities — like Canada’s native recreation ecosystem — going robust at a time of layoffs.
The occasion had plenty of indie recreation firms in addition to some triple-A veterans as nicely. With the widespread matter of mental property in video games, the audio system embody Michael Schmalz, former president of Digital Extremes, maker of Warframe; Kate Edwards, CEO of Geogrify; Xalavier Nelson Jr., founding father of Unusual Scaffold, writer of video games resembling El Paso Elsewhere and Stranger Issues VR; Jason Della Rocca, founding father of Execution Labs; and Daniel Posner, CEO at End Line Video games.
I moderated a panel with Amir Satvat, director of enterprise growth of Tencent Video games; Christine Kev, board member at Girls in Video games France; and Kim Gibson, program marketing consultant at Interactive Digital Media Ontario Creates. We talked about Satvat’s recreation job assets and upholding recreation communities at a troublesome time. Satvat just lately famous that recreation job seekers who use his assets are 84% extra more likely to get a job than those that don’t. However nonetheless, 92% of these in search of jobs, over 12 months, is not going to discover a function in video games.
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That’s a troublesome stat. Nonetheless, I used to be impressed with the expansion of Toronto’s recreation companies. Jason Lepine, CEO of XP Gaming, informed me that there are greater than 300 recreation firms in Toronto, which compares favorably with plenty of cities in North America — although it’s nonetheless smaller than the 500-plus firms in Montreal.
Lepine sarted out at Fanatic Gaming, which hosted Canada’s shopper online game conference, EGLX, which drew greater than 30,000 individuals. He targeted on a dev convention inside that occasion, after which left the corporate to construct XP Recreation Summit again in 2019. Then the pandemic hit and Lepine needed to do digital occasions for 2 years in a row. In 2023, the occasion was held in individual, and this yr was the second such present on June 13-14. About 250 recreation firms confirmed up on the occasion. I interviewed Lepine in regards to the occasion.
Right here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
GamesBeat: How did you get began with XP Gaming?
Jason Lepine: I began on the finish of 2019. Our first XP Recreation Summit was purported to happen in 2020. The pandemic canceled that. The rationale I began, I used to work at an organization known as Fanatic Gaming, the place we hosted EGLX. It was Canada’s largest online game conference. It was a B-to-C occasion in Toronto. We had 30,000 visitors. As I used to be constructing the programming for that occasion and rising it, I used to be attempting to draw the trade. I seen that the trade wasn’t thinking about coming to a B-to-C occasion, although, builders and indies.
As I used to be digging into why, I discovered that the wants had been totally different, in fact. One yr we piloted a developer convention on high of EGLX that was restricted to 300 tickets. We offered out the pilot. I noticed plenty of potential there. That’s why I left the corporate to construct alone and begin the XP Recreation Summit, which was initially known as the XP Recreation Developer Summit. We made it a bit shorter. By sheer willpower, by means of the pandemic, I simply continued iterating and studying and listening to suggestions. That’s the place we’re at this time.
GamesBeat: The primary occasion was all digital, proper?
Lepine: Sure. In 2020 we streamed it on Mixer. It was a really primary–I don’t actually matter that one. In 2021 we did a full digital convention. We had some on-line conferences. We had talks. Then in 2022 we did a hybrid occasion. All the pieces was each on-line and in-person. Final yr was the yr we hit the imaginative and prescient I had for the present. It was by means of that occasion that we showcased what we might do.
Shortly after, we gained the chance to do MIGS in Montreal. This yr was the primary yr we needed to now construct a convention that didn’t compete with MIGS, however complemented it. That’s why we went with the theme of IP this yr. MIGS could be very B-to-B. It attracts plenty of worldwide consideration. It has an identification, despite the fact that it’s modified over the past 20 years. I noticed that there was a possibility to speak about IP and video video games right here in Canada that no different convention actually touches on as a spotlight. That’s what we did this yr.
GamesBeat: How did the attendance change over time?
Lepine: Coming into my very own firm, I had plenty of relationships with the tutorial facet, the faculties. Our first yr, our largest accomplice was a college. We had plenty of college students. It was extra of a junior crowd. Through the years we’ve managed to herald extra determination makers, enterprise leaders. We’re nonetheless in a part of–we appeal to an equal quantity of determination makers and builders. However this yr we’ve got far fewer college students. That was by design. We didn’t have a scholar ticket offered publicly this yr. It was additionally our most costly yr for tickets. We had a VIP ticket and a convention go as the one two choices we had.
GamesBeat: About how many individuals did you draw to every one over time?
Lepine: I gained’t rely the digital occasions, as a result of I can’t affirm who truly logged in. Our first hybrid occasion, we began at about 400 visitors. Final yr and this yr we had comparable numbers. I don’t know the ultimate rely proper now. We had about 750 final yr and it appears to be like like it will likely be comparable this yr.
GamesBeat: Are you drawing individuals from outdoors of Toronto, outdoors of Canada?
Lepine: Completely. Final yr I feel it was one thing like 40% from outdoors of Toronto. This yr, I do know we’ve got greater than 10 nations represented. We did draw extra worldwide consideration. We had a really totally different partnership with our venue. There are lots of extra rooms being booked right here, which reveals we’ve got plenty of vacationers. A really wholesome portion of our viewers is from overseas. We’re completely satisfied to see so many individuals touring for this occasion.
GamesBeat: What does that let you know about how builders need to collect?
Lepine: Once I set out initially, my ambitions had been–I wished to have a GDC on the east coast. I pitched it that solution to individuals. I don’t say that anymore, as a result of GDC is huge. It’s 30,000 individuals. What I’ve discovered is there’s an urge for food, a powerful need for the trade to attach at smaller occasions. Our occasion is 750. MIGS was 1,200 final yr. I need to hold our occasions to that measurement. Between 700 and a couple of,000 is a candy spot the place you get plenty of enterprise achieved and meet plenty of nice individuals, however the occasion is ready to create and curate a extra intimate expertise, quite than, “Here’s a jungle. Try and find a way to do business here.”
GamesBeat: What have you ever discovered in regards to the make-up of Canada’s recreation studios?
Lepine: I can solely communicate to Toronto and Montreal to this point. They’re very totally different. Montreal is house to most of our triple-A studios right here in Canada. That’s the place they cluster. After we’re doing a B-to-B present there, in fact we get much more discussions and enterprise round triple-A studios. In Ontario and Toronto we’ve got a really robust impartial scene. I feel we’ve got greater than 300 studios right here. The wants of the studios listed here are very totally different.
It’s not unique, however whereas I see indies in Montreal that want funding too, I see a lot bigger offers being negotiated there. Outsourcing partnerships at these ranges. Right here in Toronto it’s much more small studios searching for funding, searching for companions, searching for publishers, searching for data to share with one another. How are you constructing your organization? What methods work in 2024? The content material and the make-up of who we invite is totally different between the 2.
GamesBeat: What number of studios and firms do you might have at every present?
Lepine: At MIGS we’ve got greater than 500 firms attending. I’m positive there are way more in Quebec. I feel it’s round 30 triple-A studios. Right here, final yr we had greater than 200 firms. Once I checked final week we had been over 250 registered this yr, and we at all times see a spike in registration on the finish. I wouldn’t be shocked if we handed 300 this yr at XP.
GamesBeat: Ubisoft has a studio right here. Do you might have different triple-A studios right here in Toronto?
Lepine: We’ve got Ubisoft. That’s the large one. Sure Affinity established themselves right here in 2019. Then we’ve got some bigger cellular studios. We’ve got Zynga. Rockstar has a small studio. They’re very quiet. We don’t get the prospect to listen to a lot about what they do. Sledgehammer just lately opened. And Behaviour Interactive additionally has a satellite tv for pc workplace right here. We’re seeing extra triple-A studios opening workplaces right here. It’s on a development trajectory.
GamesBeat: Does it really feel like Toronto is pulling in individuals from elsewhere, the identical method Canada is generally?
Lepine: When it comes to organising new companies? In Ontario and Toronto there’s very wholesome tax credit score help. The quantity is someplace round 40%. What’s attention-grabbing is there’s so much occurring in Quebec proper now. Quebec additionally had a really wholesome tax credit score, however there’s a brand new regulation introduced a few months in the past that may see the credit score diminished over the following 5 years. That’s going to influence the panorama of the gaming trade in Canada.
The perfect tax credit we see are on the east coast proper now, in Nova Scotia. Each province has a special providing. Toronto is a global hub for Canada, so there’s plenty of alternative right here. Historically for video games there weren’t alternatives just like the XP Recreation Summit for individuals to return and do enterprise, however we at all times hear good issues from individuals who journey right here. “Finally I have an excuse to come to Toronto.” It’s very accessible by practice, aircraft, all of that.
GamesBeat: Have you ever adopted the controversy round that transfer to scale back the Quebec tax breaks?
Lepine: I let our companions in Quebec, La Guilde, do the work of advocacy there. They’re undoubtedly representing the sport trade and preventing for these credit. I’m attempting to work with the federal government to indicate them that possibly the implications of those selections are usually not what they intend. There’s dialogue occurring. There might have been a disconnect between what the federal government supposed to resolve with that discount versus the consequence. From what I hear, it’s going to influence plenty of small companies, small studios, and never simply within the online game trade. It’s throughout visible results, particular results as nicely.
Whenever you have a look at a metropolis like Montreal that’s been identified for its artistic tradition for thus many a long time, to have that crimson flag of the federal government saying they gained’t help it like they’ve, it actually throws that trade into the unknown. What’s it going to be like within the subsequent 5 years?
GamesBeat: What impact has distant work had on firms deciding the place to place staff, the place to place hubs? It seems like among the insurance policies that had been in place possibly don’t work anymore if everyone seems to be all unfold out.
Lepine: Distant work wasn’t round when these insurance policies had been developed 10 or 20 years in the past. When you might have the choice of distant work and you’ve got these tax incentives, not simply in Canada, however all over the world–we’re seeing locations in Australia, cities and provinces, doing plenty of incentives for the trade to arrange there. I don’t have the reply. I don’t know the way it works. To my understanding, you continue to need to arrange a studio. If we’re working on the similar firm and there’s a daft tax credit score in, say, British Columbia, I’d nonetheless must register the corporate there. You’d need to be an worker there. I feel you’d need to dwell there. There are some challenges. It’s not as simple as simply throwing individuals the place it appears finest. However a dialog with people who find themselves extra aware of it than I’m might discover how that impacts issues.
GamesBeat: Does there nonetheless appear to be a move of recreation firms from the U.S. into Canada? Or does it really feel like that’s not occurring as a lot anymore?
Lepine: I don’t have an excessive amount of visibility into that. The sentiment appears to be that folks will work the place they need to dwell, finally. It comes right down to high quality of life and magnificence of life. Not essentially in gaming, however within the content material creator house, for instance, we’ve got plenty of well-known content material creators originating from Toronto who dwell in California now. You don’t have winter on the similar stage there. They get to bond with different content material creators in Los Angeles and locations like that. There are many firms that may convey creators to particular occasions and activations. There’s an incentive for that trade to go there.
Whenever you have a look at recreation studios, it comes right down to the place the individuals–I do know somebody who was working at Riot Video games over on the west coast. He was very profitable. He left as a result of he mentioned, “If I can do that at Riot, I can do it with my own studio.” He moved to Waterloo, Ontario, about an hour away from right here. Once I requested him why he got here right here, it was only a matter of life selections. The tax credit helped, nevertheless it actually got here right down to–his crew is all distant. He’s working with people in Texas, in California, right here in Canada. It’s a really trendy solution to do enterprise.
GamesBeat: What’s subsequent in your mission highway map? What are among the belongings you need to do?
Lepine: I at all times inform everybody that XP Gaming–we’re not an occasions firm. We simply occur to make good occasions. The mission for the corporate is to attach the online game trade. We began the place I dwell in Toronto. We expanded to Montreal. Later this yr we’re increasing to Vancouver. We’ve got different plans in 2025 to cowl one other space, though we’re not able to announce. From that time, Canada shall be well-connected in my eyes. However actually, our imaginative and prescient is to work across the globe, in different nations, and create that connection.
Occasions are an effective way to create connections, an effective way to run into individuals, to make introductions. That head to head, as we noticed by means of the pandemic, won’t ever get replaced. However we’re additionally taking a look at different platforms and expertise. How can we join individuals outdoors of occasions? What companions do we have to assist make these connections higher?
We simply introduced the Recreation Caviar partnership, which is able to kick issues off at MIGS. That lets us join individuals in one other method. Proper now, at this time, anyone can go on the Recreation Caviar platform and join with a developer searching for a service supplier. If I’m a service supplier I can go there and discover some individuals. That’s primarily what occurs at our occasions. Recreation Caviar does that year-round. However once more, it’s not the identical as working head to head. That’s the place we noticed a possibility to accomplice and leverage our strengths to create extra of these deal flows.
GamesBeat: Does XP Gaming qualify for a tax credit score itself?
Lepine: We don’t. We’re not seen as making video games. I say we’re not an occasions firm, however within the eyes of everybody else we’re an occasions firm. We get no credit. We fall in a wierd house. We’re a for-profit firm, so we don’t get entry to the grants that help initiatives like this. However we’re not a recreation studio, so we don’t get any of these credit both. We fall in between all the federal government help.
GamesBeat: Do any authorities teams sponsor what you do, although?
Lepine: Sure, that’s true. The town of Toronto is considered one of our sponsors. They’re robust supporters and believers in what we’re doing. We’re attracting extra eyes, extra individuals, extra companies to town. Over time they’ve undoubtedly seen this funding repay. They hope to draw extra companies right here and additional nurture the sport trade.
Disclosure: XP Gaming paid my solution to Toronto, the place I moderated a panel on communities in gaming.