Tag: Entertainment Software Association of Canada

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Hogwarts Legacy was the best-selling game in Canada in February 2023

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) has revealed February’s top 10 best-selling games in Canada.

See below for the full list, which comes in partnership with the market research firm NPD Group:

  1. Hogwarts Legacy (PS5/Xbox Series X and S/PC)
  2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X and S/PC)
  3. Dead Space (PS5/Xbox Series X and S/PC)
  4. NHL 23 (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X and S/PC)
  5. FIFA 23 (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X and S/Nintendo Switch/PC)
  6. Octopath Traveler II (PS4/PS5/Nintendo Switch/PC)
  7. Elden Ring (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X and S/PC)
  8. The Last of Us Part I (PS5)
  9. Metroid Prime Remastered (Nintendo Switch)
  10. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo Switch)

Canada best-selling games Feb. 2023Unsurprisingly, Hogwarts Legacy was the best-selling game of the month. That said, this only accounts for the current-gen and PC versions of the Harry Potter game; PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions are set to release later this year. The former two versions drop in May, while the latter will release in July, so it remains to be seen whether the game will reappear on those respective monthly charts.

Meanwhile, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and Dead Space placed second and third in February, respectively. The Call of Duty sequel was Canada’s best-selling game last month, while the Dead Space remake was also in the third spot last month behind Fire Emblem Engage. Interestingly, the strategy game — which the ESAC told MobileSyrup got Nintendo fans especially excited to see ranked so high in January — fell off the top 10 entirely in February.

It’s worth noting that both Modern Warfare II and Dead Space have Canadian connections. Dead Space was developed by Montreal’s EA Motive, while the PC port of Modern Warfare II — a game otherwise developed by California’s Infinity Ward — was handled by Quebec City-based Beenox handled the PC port. Additionally, the fourth and fifth games on the list, NHL and FIFA 23, respectively, were both developed by EA Vancouver.

For comparison, here’s the NPD’s U.S. list of best-selling games in February:

NPD U.S. February's best-selling games

In general, the Canadian and U.S. charts are quite similar, besides the obvious exception of NHL 23 being on the former list due to our bigger love of hockey. The Last of Us Part I charting in both countries makes sense, given the popularity of the Alberta-shot HBO series.

That said, Octopath Traveller II placed sixth in Canada compared to only tenth in the U.S., which, alongside Fire Emblem Engage ranking higher here than there last month, suggests that Canadians sure do like their old-school JRPGs. As well, Metroid Prime Remastered didn’t crack the U.S. top 10 but came in at nine in Canada — particularly notable considering NPD doesn’t track digital sales for Nintendo games and physical copies of the remaster have seemingly been more limited than other Switch titles.

Ultimately, data like this is interesting, especially since we’ve historically not had any insight into Canada-specific findings. We’ll have more on March’s sales data when it becomes available.

Image credit: Warner Bros. Games

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Canadians sure do love Nintendo, especially Fire Emblem

Historically, news of the best-selling video games each year has been focused on the U.S. and you’d be hard-pressed to find any Canadian-specific data. Even when brands like PlayStation release sales breakdowns, Canada is lumped in with the U.S.

Now, however, that’s finally changing. The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC), the lobbying group on behalf of Canada’s booming video game industry, has partnered with NPD Group to reveal Canadian-specific figures each month. Until now, the market research firm has only publicly divulged U.S. data.

Canada's best selling games of January 2023

Canada’s 10 best-selling games in January 2023. Image credit: ESAC/NPD

It’s an initiative that Jayson Hilchie, ESAC president and CEO, says is particularly “exciting” to get out there.

“This idea of Canadian sales really spun out of an idea that we were going to write an op-ed about how important Canadian games were on a global stage,” Hilchie told MobileSyrup. “We were going around the world getting German sales, we were getting Pan-European sales, Australian sales, British sales, Türkiye, and NPD sales in the U.S. And the whole point was to show how many Canadian games were in the top 10, top 20, best-selling over the holidays, all around the world.”

NPD U.S. Jan 2023

The 10 best-selling games in the U.S. in January 2023. Image credit: NPD

While he says those plans ultimately fell through, he says his organization’s long-running relationship with NPD Group paved the way to a different initiative: publishing Canada’s top 10 best-selling games directly through the ESAC. So far, he’s happy with the results.

“Obviously, I was happy to see the three Canadian games in the top 10,” he says of Canada’s inaugural January 2023 list. Indeed, the third, fourth and fifth spots are held by Dead Space (Montreal’s EA Motive), NHL 23 and FIFA 23 (both developed by EA Vancouver), respectively. Notably, while FIFA appeared on both the Canadian and U.S. lists, Madden NFL 23 was the only other sports game on the American list — a testament to how much Canadians love their hockey.

Hilchie also notes that this list is lacking Ubisoft, the French publishing giant with several studios across Canada, including in Quebec and Ontario. “Normally, I think we would see some Ubisoft games in there, but I don’t think they had a release calendar that matched that particular month.” Indeed, the company confirmed in January that sales were down in part due to a comparatively lighter 2022 lineup; major franchises Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry didn’t see new releases last year, while Just Dance 2023 underperformed.

It’s worth noting that January’s best-selling game in Canada, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, also has a Canadian connection. While the game was primarily developed by California’s Infinity Ward, Quebec City-based Beenox handled the PC port.

Even a juggernaut like Call of Duty has ties to Canada. Image credit: Activision

“I think as time goes on throughout the year, we’re always going to see at least a couple of Canadian games,” says Hilchie. “And in that top 10, I think is really good considering we’re a big industry, but we’re a small country relative to some of these other places.”

One area in which the Canadian list stood out from its American counterpart was the prevalence of Nintendo. On the U.S. list, the Japanese gaming giant’s Fire Emblem Engage and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet placed fifth and tenth, respectively. In Canada, Fire Emblem Engage was second and Scarlet and Violet placed seventh, while a third Nintendo title that didn’t chart on the U.S. list, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, came in at 10th. This also follows Nintendo’s recent confirmation that the Switch has been Canada’s best-selling console for five consecutive years.

While Hilchie says this likely speaks to Nintendo’s long, storied history in the industry, he says he’s more surprised by how much the company’s fans responded to the results of this data.

“I can tell you that the Nintendo fans, based on our social media site, are not only surprised but excited about the number two game on the list, [Fire Emblem Engage], especially because it doesn’t even include digital sales,” he says. “So it’s done quite well. Obviously, there are some major fans of that franchise that were happy to see that the game is doing quite well. To me, that was one of the more fun things that came out of it.”

Fire Emblem Engage characters

Fire Emblem Engage seems to have resonated with Canadians, in particular. Image credit: Nintendo

He says this speaks to the surprisingly substantial public interest in this data, especially since it was dropped without any prior tease.

“One thing that was really exciting for us was that I don’t think we expected to see as much enthusiasm as there was for the sales data. We got something like 30,000 impressions on that original tweet, non-boosted impressions, which is a considerably high social media post for us,” he says, noting that ESAC’s social media posts are usually more policy, government, or initiative-related. “I’d be lying if I told you I thought that it was going to get as much excitement as what actually came out of it. So we’re really thrilled to move forward with this every month because it looks like we’ve got a really great base audience and we can just build from that.”

Hilchie also says there’s other Canadian-specific data that can be revealed as the reports evolve over time. While he notes that they’ll never divulge how many copies each game has sold as that’s each publisher’s proprietary information, they do have data for up to 50 games that could be shared in the future.

“I think that there’s a lot of opportunity for us, and I think NPD wanted to see how this worked out. But they’ve definitely said that they’ve got other data that they can share with us, and so time will tell what we put out. So we’re starting with this and now that we know there’s an appetite for this type of information, we’ll go from there.”

Dead Space

Motive’s Dead Space remake received universal praise when it was released in January. Image credit: EA

Ultimately, he says this is “another vertical” through which the ESAC can elevate its platform, especially as its found “a whole new kind of audience.”

Naturally, data like this helps the ESAC in its larger push to get government support for the national games sector. Coincidentally, our discussion came mere days after the reveal of Alberta’s latest budget, in which video games were not given an expected tax credit. The fact that this also happened while the province is getting significant publicity from HBO’s The Last of Us, a series based on a video game, makes the lack of a gaming tax credit all the more standout.

“The ironic thing about The Last of Us is that because it’s a published and distributed television show that it’s eligible for the film and television tax incentive that Alberta offers,” says Hilchie. “Yet if The Last of Us video game was shot and designed and developed there, it would get absolutely zero government support.”

Per the ESAC’s Canadian Video Game Industry: 2021 report, there are nearly 100 development studios in Alberta, including, arguably, Canada’s most famous: BioWare Edmonton, the creator of beloved RPGs like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

“The seriousness of the matter is that the Alberta video game industry is a nice upstart industry,” says Hilchie. “They’ve got some serious capacity going there. There were investments in studios that set up there when the first iteration of the tax incentive came out, and you started to see a lot of interest in Calgary and Edmonton, and then the tax incentive was canceled.”

A provincial breakdown of the number of gaming studios in Canada, per ESAC’s 2021 report. (Image credit: ESAC)

He hopes that the spring election will offer an opportunity for ESAC, Digital Alberta and other groups to “put the issue back on the table” for all political parties.

“The fact of the matter is that the video game industry proves across Canada that when you put targeted government support toward it, it blows up. It grows. You can look anywhere, whether it’s the original Quebec tax incentive to Nova Scotia to Ontario,” he says.

He points to how such support has helped his native Nova Scotia grow immensely in 10 years, adding the likes of Ubisoft and Bethesda’s Alpha Dog Games (both in Halifax) and 2K Sports (Lunenberg) during this time.

“Now, there are not only those three big publishers but another 30 independent mobile game developers and PC game developers. It can show you what you can do in a place with a million people like Nova Scotia. Just think about what Alberta could pull off with two major cities and a larger population. So I’m disappointed but I’m not defeated.”

Image credit: Nintendo

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More Canadian parents are playing games with their kids than ever

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) has released its latest biennial ‘Essential Facts’ survey, which reveals a variety of statistics related to Canadian gamers.

Conducted by NPD Group on behalf of the ESAC, Canada’s video game industry lobbying group, Essential Facts 2022 emphasized how player habits have shifted over the course of COVID-19 pandemic, but still demonstrate strong engagement.

The most immediate finding from the data is that fewer Canadians are playing games. To be sure, it’s still a significant amount — 53 percent of Canadians, averaging 7.9 hours of play each week. But it’s down from the 61 percent of Canadians who reported playing in November 2020.

Canadian gamer habits down

Canadians have been playing a bit less now that COVID restrictions are down.

For Jayson Hilchie, ESAC president and CEO, this isn’t exactly a surprise, given how many more COVID-19 restrictions there were two years ago.

“People have just wanted to get outside, and people want to do things they couldn’t do during COVID. I don’t think it was a huge surprise for us that we were going to see a drop,” he says. “I think what we’re seeing people temporarily deciding that they want to do things they couldn’t do, and gaming filled such an important part of their lives during the pandemic that for many people, they wanted to go and do something else. And that’s okay. I totally expect that these people are going to continue to game, but it’s okay to take a break, and it’s okay to do something else.”

That said, the interest in games remains consistently strong across Canada. While there are some standouts, like Manitobans playing the most at nine hours per week (above the overall 7.9-hour average) or B.C. having the highest gamer population at 59 percent, the number of gamers per province is uniformly above 50 percent, which Hilchie says he’s happy to see.

Essential Facts Canada 2022 provinces

All provinces were gaming less overall, but some have been playing more than others.

“We have a balanced population of people who play video games. It doesn’t matter if you live in Newfoundland, or if you live in Manitoba or British Columbia. I think that’s what’s important,” he says. “If there was one province that was off, compared to some of the others, I would be asking [why], but for the most part, what I see is a balanced country of a very similar demographic playing video games from coast to coast.”

Games as a form of connection

Across the board, the ESAC also wants to highlight games’ unique ability to bring people together. Indeed, the top two reasons respondents provided for playing games were the ability to socially interact with others (35 percent) and play/compete against others (34 percent). Tied for third place with 25 percent, meanwhile, were cooperating with others through games and collecting trophies and achievements.

Essential Facts 2022 reasons for gaming

Canadians have many reasons for gaming, but some of the top ones are to connect with others.

“Video games are playing such an important part of people’s lives. It’s really moving a lot more to online gaming, people seeing games, both as a form of entertainment, but also as a place to hang out with their friends to meet new people,” says Hilchie. “One of the cool statistics is 38 percent of people have either met a really good friend or a spouse through video gaming. 38 percent of people — that’s a lot. That’s more than one-third of people doing something I would consider to be really significant.”

Companies are clearly looking at this, too, with big multiplayer games like Fortnite and Call of Duty bringing in millions of players per month. A number of popular social-focused games are even made in Canada, including Rainbow Six Siege (Ubisoft Montreal), Warframe (London, Ontario’s Digital Extremes) and FIFA 23 (EA Vancouver), all of which help contribute to the national games sector’s $5.5 billion annual contribution to Canada’s GDP.

Perhaps the biggest testament to this broader push for online games can be found at PlayStation, a company best known for blockbuster single-player experiences like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarök. The gaming giant plans to launch more than 10 live service games by 2026, and as part of those efforts, it recently acquired its first-ever Canadian studio, Montreal’s Haven, to develop an ambitious cloud-based title.

Hilchie, who was at the launch of Haven, says he has “a lot of respect” for studio founder Jade Raymond, a veteran of the industry who co-created Assassin’s Creed and helped found Ubisoft Toronto (Far Cry 6) and Montreal’s EA Motive (Star Wars: Squadrons).

“Just the name of the studio, Haven — it’s a haven for game developers that wants to do something different,” he says. “But at the end of the day, the majority of video game players are playing online, because they want to connect with others, they want to immerse themselves in worlds, they want to see themselves represented. And anything that video game companies can do to cater to those needs, I think is going to be reasonably successful […] I’m optimistic about what they’re going to do — not just Haven, but just across the entire industry, of being more representative of the players.”

Reaching older people

Essential Facts 2022 parents

Parents are playing more with their kids.

The 2022 survey also found that games continue to reach older audiences. In particular, 74 percent of parents who play games say they do so with their children, an increase of nine percent over the past two years. Hilchie says part of this is just due to the number of kids who continue to become interested in games, but another factor is that modern parents themselves have grown up with games.

“I grew up with video games. I’m 43-years-old, I have a 10-year-old and a seven-year-old, and I like to play video games with them. My parents couldn’t have cared less about playing video games with me when I was 10 or 7. They didn’t understand what it was — they only knew that I wanted a Nintendo or Sega, and that was it,” says Hilchie. “Now it’s just so different — I understand what the kids are doing, but I also understand that it’s where they want to be. It’s where their friends are. It’s where they’re having fun.”

Essential Facts age demographics

Older women are taking to games more than men in the same age groups.

What we also see in the survey is that more women in older demographics are turning to games. While the overall split of gamers once again is about 50-50, and more males in the 6-12, 13-17 and 18-34 age groups spend significantly more time playing games, this disparity, on average, shifts significantly in the older demographics. Among those aged 35-54, males spent an average of 7.7 hours per week versus 6.7 per week for women, a much smaller gap than in the other age groups. What’s more, women aged 55-64 actually played more than men — 8.4 hours versus 6.4 hours per week, respectively.

While Hilchie notes that it isn’t easy to pull a larger narrative from this, he says he thinks it points to how popular mobile games have become, and how their accessible nature appeals to older demographics.

“All I can do is surmise that because women are playing more mobile games and social games, it’s just much more accessible for them to play when they’re on the move, or when they’re on the go, whereas older men are playing more PC games. And it’s not as easy for them if they’re on the train, or if they’re traveling, to sit down and log on to the PC game that they’re playing […] I hate to generalize because not all women are playing mobile games — there are lots of women playing console games, and not all men are playing PC games or console games either […] But it does seem to me that the accessibility of mobile, and the predominant nature of that, on the women’s side of things, probably results in more women playing.”

The next level

Looking ahead, there are two areas that Hilchie says the ESAC is focusing on.

The first is the recently launched Global Video Game Coalition (GVGC), a collaboration between the ESAC and its counterparts in the likes of the U.S., Europe and Asia to raise awareness about the benefits of gaming. That includes working with the likes of the United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO), the latter of which controversially added “gaming disorder” to its list of illnesses a few years ago.

“[We want to] ensure that they understand the positive impacts that video games are making in people’s lives, specifically because of the challenges that we’ve had with the WHO — that’s why it’s based in Geneva. And we want to ensure that they understand that video games are a force for good,” says Hilchie.

Part of that is the latest Essential Facts survey, which he says raises a lot of points the GVGC brought up to the WHO. “We’re pushing a narrative right now of video games being a social, community-building, relationship-making place for people to go that is positive in people’s lives. It’s improving people’s well-being, their mental health — people are happier, they have more joy, when they play video games.”

While he notes that the gaming disorder isn’t going to change, there does seem to be an “openness and a willingness from the WHO” to explore the positive impacts of games.

“Because they’re not mutually exclusive. One can be true along with the other at the same time. And I think that’s really where the industry is trying to go, which is, ‘Okay, gaming disorder is over there, we realize that a small number of people may excess in video game play and they need to get the treatment they need to get. But over here, video games are improving so many more people’s lives by helping well-being, helping them connect, and so on.’”

The other area that Hilchie singles out, as he’s mentioned before, is continuing to work to get more women interested in games.

“There is evidence out there that girls who play video games are three times more likely to get into STEM curriculum programs and get into making them. And so the more girls, especially younger girls at early stages of their lives, get interested in video games and interested in technology and computer programming and animation, hopefully, the more we will have entering the programs that allow them to then get into the industry […] We do need to be able to get more and visible minorities into the industry and be more representative of the players who play our game, but also being more representative within the people who are making them, because obviously that’s going to make the games better for everybody.”

The  Essential Facts 2022 study was conducted by NPD Group among 3,091 people between May 20th to 31st, 2022. The full study can be found here.

Image credit: Shutterstock (header), ESAC (in-line photos)

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Canadian gaming industry leader on the Canadian Game Awards and the possibility of E3 in Canada

If you didn’t know it, the Canadian gaming industry is the third-largest of its kind in the world, behind only the U.S. and Japan. According to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC), the lobbying group that represents Canadian gaming companies, $5.5 billion of the country’s GDP comes from this sector every year.

With all of that in mind, Canadian esports organizer Northern Arena is once again putting on the Canadian Game Awards, an annual ceremony to honour Canadian games, studios, content creators and esports players. The show, which kicked off last year virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic, is being held digitally once again this year via Twitch.

However, things are a little different this year: now, there are actually two ceremonies. The first, the Canadian Indie Game Awards show, will take place on Thursday, April 7th at 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT, featuring nominees like Inscryption (Vancouver’s Daniel Mullins), Echo Generation (Toronto’s Cococucumber) and Moonglow Bay (Bunnyhug, an international team led by Canadian ex-pat Zach Soares).

Following that, the Canadian Game Awards itself will be held on Friday, April 8th, with a pre-show beginning at 7:30pm ET before the main event kicks off at 8pm ET. Some of the nominees include Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (Quebec’s Eidos Montreal), Far Cry 6 (Ontario’s Ubisoft Toronto) and Age of Empires IV (Vancouver’s Relic Entertainment).

To help put all of this together, Northern Arena has tapped the ESAC to be one of its sponsors, with president and CEO Jayson Hilchie also set to present Game of the Year during the April 8th show.

Ahead of the two ceremonies, MobileSyrup caught up with Hilchie to talk about ESAC’s involvement in the Canadian Game Awards, the evolution of the show, and the possibility for other events in Canada to promote Canadian-made games.

Question: How did your involvement in the Canadian Game Awards come about?

Jayson Hilchie: The older iteration of the Canadian Video Game Awards, we endorsed, and [Canadian Game Awards creator] Carl [Edwin-Michel] and I are longtime friends. And when he came up with the idea, there was a two- to three-year absence and lull with no award ceremony. And Carl just called me and said, ‘Look, I want to put on this award ceremony, what do you think we had some initial kind of strategic discussions about what went wrong with the old ones? What would need to happen for the new ones to kind of go forward.’ He was really interested in doing everything that was possible to do to appease all of those things. And he seems to be pulling it off.

We decided as a board that an award ceremony in Canada was an important thing to drive the industry forward — also to promote the industry. I mean, you’re writing about it, so that’s proof that that works. So it really came down to a discussion. I recommended to the board that we were going to endorse this. But when you get our endorsement, you’re getting endorsed by Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox — all the big companies. And so it’s not just a simple endorsement; there is a discussion that has to happen. And there’s always a reputational risk if the thing fails. And so that’s what happened before, and so we want to be involved in something that’s sustainable. And so far, Carl’s done a really good job with the production side of things and pulling it together. It’s looked really, really good the last two years, and just looking forward to seeing what it looks like this year. And even though it’s virtual, I went down there and shot the presentation. So it’s a bit of a mix, right? So I’m excited to see what it looks like. And Carl’s proven time and time again that he’s got the chops to be able to produce stuff like this.

Q: You mentioned looking at what was done before with the Canadian Video Game Awards. What are some of the things that have come up in your discussions with Carl and observing what was done in the past that are being done differently now with the new show?

Hilchie: There were some really good iterations of the old show. For a time, it was moving forward in a direction that was fantastic. I guess the brass tax on the differences right now is that Carl’s yet to host an in-person event, and there’s a massive difference between the virtual side of things and then putting on an event with 500 people buying tickets and coming and buying tables. The former awards did that — that was always in person. They never did a virtual one. So right now, I think it’d be difficult for me to opine about the differences between what this one’s doing different or better.

I can say that this one has a production value to it that is where we would like to see it. And I know because Carl did produce at least one — I think a couple — of the former iterations of the Awards, that he’s got the chops to be able to do this in person when it comes time. And I think the challenge with any of these types of things is trying to convey value to sponsors, trying to convey value to the industry, and trying to convey value to people to come and buy tickets. Like, if it’s in Vancouver, it’s challenging for people from Montreal and Toronto to get there. That’s an expensive trip, and it’s kind of a luxury item. It’s not E3, it’s not GDC — it’s just an award ceremony. And so, how do you convey that necessity to companies to set aside a budget to send a group of 10 people at minimum and buy a table to the award ceremony in Vancouver or, if it’s in Montreal, the same for people out west. So I think that’s a challenge with the old one, and Carl has yet to deal with that challenge.

And so time will tell how that goes down. I’m hoping that people want to get out of the house and want to go to things that will be a kickstart for [Carl] next when we start to do things in person, hopefully. But that’s the challenge with award shows, right? I mean, you can see what Geoff Keighley has been able to do in the U.S. [with The Game Awards]. He’s been able to do things very successfully because he’s well connected. He’s got a lot of sponsors and he’s connected to the agents to be able to bring in the celebrities that bring people into the room. I don’t know how well he does, but he’s been going for a number of years now, and I think that it’s a great model that Carl might want to look at when it comes time to do things in person.

Q: That covers the business side of the show, but let’s move on to the actual nominees. What were some of your big takeaways when looking at the games? Do you have any personal favourites?

Hilchie: Well, you know, I never say I have a favourite because there’s like three or four of my members represented in those games. [laughs] But I think the difference here is they’re all big games. And the Indie Awards are separate, so you’re not having a small game versus a large game. Even though in the old iterations of the awards when [Toronto-based] Capybara’s Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP won Game of the Year — it won everything, and it beat all of the big games. I think it actually made some of the bigger companies a little bit irritated because “this small little game just beat out my big game that we spent a $100 million on — how does that happen?” So it’s possible for that to happen, but I think it’s a good idea to separate them, at least for now. But it would be great to bring them all together in a one-night show at some point.

But for me, I have no real favourites. For me, it’s like, every single game that is in Game of the Year was built during the pandemic. That’s something that, whoever wins, all of those [developers] whose games are nominated have a lot of pride to be able to say ‘we did this during the pandemic and we’re up for Game of the Year.’ I think that’s the big takeaway from this: every game that’s nominated had at least a large portion of it built during the pandemic. I mean, that’s something, right?

Q: What does it mean for you and the ESAC to be involved in something like this? Why would you say it’s important to spotlight Canadian-made games?

Hilchie: That’s the heart of what we do: we promote the Canadian video game industry, and we protect it and we make sure that it continues to grow […] The Awards, for us, is an opportunity to support another organization doing an awards show that is going to add to the visibility and promotion of Canadian video games across the country. It’s another touchpoint. We’re always trying to pitch stories about games doing this, and the industry doing this. So for us, the ability to highlight games and promote them and get media attention, but also get recognition for the people who are working really hard.

I just did a Q&A with my counterpart in Spain at AVEI [Spanish Association of Video Games], which is their industry association. And they’re highlighting the Canadian industry as an example of what Spain’s can be. I was answering some of his questions, and Canada, at one point, was not where we are today. We were where Spain is. So it’s amazing to get recognition for the people who are busting their butts making these games, especially the ones who have been doing it from home, building these massive budget games and trying to meet ship deadlines for the holidays or whatever the date is. For them to get some recognition, that’s great for them and that’s really important.

But ultimately, for ESAC, it’s about getting more visibility for the industry in a positive way. And getting articles like what you’re going to write about, how important this is, and getting some spotlight on the fact that we even have something like this. So that’s why support it, and that’s why we endorse it. And that’s why I present an award at it. Because it’s an important addition to the strategy around visibility.

Q: On a similar note, but moving somewhat away from the Awards… The ESA, your American counterpart, just confirmed that E3 2022 has been fully cancelled — no digital or physical show. When we talked at E3 2019, you noted that a major reason why a show like that hasn’t happened in Canada is that there are all these other events, like E3, Gamescom and PAX, so getting buy-in from companies for another event is difficult. Fast forward three years, though, and the landscape is a little different with COVID, E3’s cancellation and more digital shows. Do you think there’s a possibility now for some sort of similar gaming event in Canada, especially with what’s happening with E3, that could, in particular, spotlight Canadian-made games?

Hilchie: We’ve had that conversation as a board so many times, and since we spoke about it last time, I don’t really think anything’s changed. I think the virtual stuff is a great filler for events that already have brand recognition and loyalty around them. But I don’t think that starting a new event virtually is really kind of going to drive that value, especially because Carl has kind of done that with this event. And it’s fantastic. And he did that. And he got stuck in the pandemic. He stuck to it — he did the 2020 Awards, and it was all virtual, because if you recall, it was supposed to be an in-person event. And so he pivoted pretty hard. And he stuck to it, right? He could have quit, but he stuck to it.

I think for an expo of some sort, like an E3-style style of things, I think you really only need to look at ESA’s decision to not hold a virtual E3 get an idea of how great they think that was, right? I mean, I’m not going to speak for them. But if it was a great experience for everybody, you’d think that they’d be doubling down on it and doing it again. They’re just not doing it.

[In] our industry, you have to get people physically touching the controllers, physically playing the games — it’s hard to do something that’s just trailers, that’s just gameplay virtually you can watch. That already exists on YouTube and Twitch and other places. You get to watch people play the games before they launch. So to do another event like that, I think, would be forcing it.

Now, when this is all cleared up, and the risk profile of hosting an in-person event considerably decreases? We’re always open to looking at something. But in the short-term, I certainly wouldn’t recommend to my members to do a virtual event create something new. If some of the other events that used to exist kind of fall off the calendar or they don’t survive or things change or the schedule changes? Yeah, I would definitely take a look at what the opportunities are for something in Canada. I get it — I get your point.

It’s just that it’s just so challenging for our members to just, you know, ‘be at this, and then this, and then this, and then this.’ And it’s very costly for them. So they need to be able to identify some sort of value proposition and [return on investment] on every event that they go to. And we’ve got some members who want it, some members who don’t — we just haven’t been able to get to a point where we have a critical mass that’s going to make it worth it. That’s a long-winded answer, but it’s a complicated discussion. It’s not as simple as we talk about it and this person says, ‘Let’s do it.’ It has the potential to be politically rapturous.

For sure. For now, at least, we have the Canadian Game Awards, and raising exposure for that.

Hilchie: Yeah, it’s always one of the challenges, right? I think Carl does a good job.  I think the world just needs to get back in person again for a lot of these brands — he’s trying to build a brand, like I said I wouldn’t do from a virtual standpoint. It’s hard. People fall in love with brands, because they have touchpoint with them, right? They either buy them or wear them or they use them or they attend them. And anything that came out of nowhere during a pandemic is really difficult to get people to build that emotional attachment to. But we’re excited.

This interview has been edited for language and clarity. 

Disclaimer: I participated in the judging committee for this year’s show, but was not paid for this opportunity and had no involvement in the actual creation of the show itself. I also do not know any of the winners.

Image credit: Northern Arena