Gaming giant Capcom closing Burnaby studio
Posted September 18, 2018 9:49 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS 1130) – The local tech industry in Metro Vancouver took a hit on Tuesday after Japanese-based video developer Capcom announced it’s closing its Burnaby studio.
The move leaves more than 150 people out of work. The studio, best known for developing the Dead Rising series, had already laid off about 50 people earlier this year.
Vancouver area tech expert John Biehler says the closure leaves a pretty big hole to fill in the gaming community, noting there are other studios but most are much smaller.
“From what I can tell there’s still a lot of opportunity in the tech sector and the gaming sector locally, just maybe not with some of the bigger companies,” he said. “That’s also kind of the gaming industry as a whole sort of balancing and levelling off a little bit form huge growth from a little while ago.”
Biehler explained some of the smaller studios might not be able to take on everyone who was let go, noting some might have to leave the Lower Mainland to find a new job.
But, he said the industry faces yet another challenge, housing affordability.
“If they want to attract the right talent, can the talent afford to live where they need to be so they can work there? And you know, just in the Lower Mainland alone, we see everybody sort of moving out to the suburbs because they can’t afford to live in the city.”
He said he’s seen a number of people move across the country.
“It’s hard to say what the ultimate effect will be like on Vancouver but Canada is still a thriving gaming community, it just seems to be shifting more towards the east.”
NEWS 1130 has reached to Capcom for comment.
In a press release to investors the company said it expects to record losses form the termination.
“As a result of reviewing titles in development at Capcom Game Studio Vancouver, Inc., Capcom now expects to record losses from the termination of development projects of approximately 4.5 billion yen under cost of sales in its consolidated financial results for the six months of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019,” read the release.
