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10/05/07 - Video Game Industry Boosts Local Economy |
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Susan West
Q13 FOX News
October 5, 2007, 4:48 PM PDT
The World Cyber Games is going on all weekend at Seattle's Qwest Field. The tournament is proof that playing video games is a big deal here.
Did you know that making them is too? There are 150 companies in the interactive media industry in our state including 15-thousand jobs. Most of the companies are in the Puget Sound area.
Kristina Hudson of enterpriseSeattle, an economic development organization says, "Within 30-square miles you can throw a stone and hit a game developer practically."
It's no simple task creating video games. Jeff Pobst, the CEO and founder of Hidden Path Entertainment in Bellevue says, "A video game product you might play at home might take three years and hundreds of people to actually make." The industry is a big money maker locally, including 4-billion dollars in gaming revenues last year and possibly 5-billion this year. The industry is still growing. Warner Brothers is adding to the local mix. Samantha Ryan, the Senior Vice President of Development and Production for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment says, "We are forming a new production company in the Seattle area, in Kirkland, and we are hiring like mad. We will be running a lot of development projects out of here."
Entertainment isn't the only goal. Christopher Erhardt of DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond says, "We have surgeons who are playing video games to hone their fine motor skills so they'll be better. We have studies that have shown games have helped autistics and aphasiacs to come out of their shells." So it's also about education and communication. Kids of course are playing, but the average video game player is 33. Experts say a lot of those people started young playing video games and they hope they'll continue playing for years to come.
Experts predict the global video game market will be a nearly 50-billion dollar industry by the year 2011.
The World Cyber Games continue through Sunday at Qwest Field. For more details click Q-links.
Copyright © 2007, KCPQ
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