Local gaming industry a bright spot in bad economy

Local gaming industry a bright spot in bad economy

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Story Published: Nov 19, 2008 at 6:54 PM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 21, 2008 at 6:02 AM PDT

By Casey Norton & KOMO Staff

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REDMOND, Wash. -- The Seattle area is known as the "Hollywood" of video games. And in this down economy, it's one of the few bright spots.

Gaming means $4 billion to the state, and it's growing every year. And lawmakers toured Microsoft Wednesday to find out how they can make that number grow.

The state is not only interested in helping big companies like Microsoft, where their Halo 3 game took in $300 million in just the first week, but the 150 smaller companies that employ more than 15,000 people.

Those smaller companies told a legislative panel the kind of money that's at stake.

"When I first started in the industry with EA, we were talking about games that cost $10- or $20 million to produce," said Ondarus Jenkins with Bungie. "Now, we're talking about games that will cost $40- to $50 million and potentially much more."

Lt. Governor Brad Owen agreed. "It is going to be a significant contributor to our economy in the future. I do not at all see it going down. I only see it progressing, and it behooves us to make sure we help them do that."

Besides the obvious tax breaks, industry leaders are asking for more man power. Gamers can create all kinds of people on the computer but companies need applicants with better educations.

"It's important for our students to be getting that math and computer skills at an early age so they can get into the universities and take the jobs that are available to them," said Kristina Hudson with enterpriseSeattle.

The gaming industry says the day is coming when a game like Halo makes billions on its own.

Washington lawmakers hope that game is developed here.

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