That Other Animation Empire -- Video Games

Flipping through news reports, I came across these nuggets of information from the Entertainment Software Association's 2010 Report regarding Video games in the 21st century.

• The U.S. computer and video game software publishing industry directly employs more than 32,000 people in 34 states. Product (GDP) was $4.9 billion. ...

• The real annual growth rate of the U.S. computer and video game software industry was 10.6% for the period 2005-2009 and 6.7% for the period 2005-2008.

• The total U.S. employment, both direct employment in the U.S. computer and video game software publishing industry grew at an annual rate of 8.65%.

• In 2009, the average annual compensation per employee (wages, salaries and employer contributions for pensions, insurance and government social insurance) was $89,781.

The gaming industry is a lot like the traditional animation biz. It uses talent from all over the world, it locates big studios in lower wage geography, also higher wage geography, and points in-between.

Because what it wants is a large group of trained, experienced artists and technicians who can add value to the product. (And there is minimal value created when a low-cost facility in, say, Bangladesh creates a lower profit video game ...)

My takeaway from all this is: when an industry segment in the U.S. of A. grows at 8.65%, it's staying at least halfway competitive with the rest of the world. (My guesstimate here would track what I know of the animation industry ins Southern California. Though growth numbers are positive, California owns a smaller slice of a rapidly growing pie than previously ...)