ACC/SXSW Game Panel on the Economic Impact on the Game Industry

A few days ago, I attended the Austin Community College/South By Southwest (ACC/SXSW) Game Panel, where several major Austin game industry figures discussed the economic climate of the country in relation to the game industry. From the sound of it, the answer might be a little bit different than one might expect.

For one, the Austin economy and job market hasn’t shrunk. In fact, it has grown 1.1% or so. Several areas are shrinking, such as the semiconductor industry, but not all industries are suffering this problem. The game industry has certainly seem some issues – both Midway and NCSoft have largely or completely pulled out of the Austin area, and the game industry as a whole has cut an awful lot of jobs.  On the surface, it seems pretty bleak. This economic crisis is going to show some effects such as fewer games being published by larger companies, who are going to be unwilling to invest in games that aren’t likely to succeed. So, expect a lot of games in the future that seem like “safe bets” to consumers. Given that games can cost around $28 million, that shouldn’t be much of a shock.

Yet, right now you can also expect smaller studios and independent developers to have the chance to flourish more than before. There have been a bunch of new opportunities and distribution channels that never existed before, such as the Amazon game store . Austin is also heavily encouraging new developers to start up businesses with incentive plans and investment opportunities. They are also looking at increasing the intensives for larger companies as well.

Overall, the panel was extremely interesting and was also a nice way of getting to know some of Austin developers and the economic climate of the area as well.