This image is taken from the last printed version of CARD: Canadian Advertising Rates and Data. It presents the cost to advertise in various media outlets, this case is Maclean’s a popular news magazine mostly read in Ontario.

Notice how you have various costs, from black & white, 1 color and 4 colors. Also, some other options such as free standing inserts (FSI) and classified ads. The readership of Maclean’s is the last thing showed, including total paid, complimentary and newsstand.

Some students and I brainstormed our favorite websites that provide good business information at the international level. Here it is:
– IMF
– OECD
– World Bank
– Doing Business
– CIA World Factbook
– Travel Guides (Lonely Planet)
– UN Data
– WTO Stats

Also a good strategy is to look for free reports from national statistical agencies. Anything missing? Let me know in the comments!

Here are short bibliographies generated from Library sources.

EBSCO’s Business Source Complete from peer-reviewed journals. The search query was simply for the terms “video games” industry. I picked the most interesting that touched upon “indie games” or labour issues for the past 5 years, 7 articles from about the first 40 hits.

Title: Under the radar: Industry entry by user entrepreneurs.
Authors: Haefliger, Stefan shaefliger@ethz.ch; Jäger, Peter pejaeger@ethz.ch; von Krogh, Georg gvkrogh@ethz.ch
Source: Research Policy; Nov2010, Vol. 39 Issue 9, p1198-1213, 16p

Title: User Communities and Social Software in the Video Game Industry.
Authors: Burger-Helmchen, Thierry, Cohendet, Patrick
Source: Long Range Planning; Oct2011, Vol. 44 Issue 5/6, p317-343, 27p

Title: The orchestrating firm: value creation in the video game industry.
Authors: Mikael Gidhagen; Oscar Persson Ridell; David Sörhammar
Source: Managing Service Quality; Jul2011, Vol. 21 Issue 4, p392-409, 18p

Title: Computer Hobbyists and the Gaming Industry in Finland.
Authors: Saarikoski, Petri1 petri.saarikoski@utu.fi; Suominen, Jaakko1 jaakko.suominen@utu.fi
Source: IEEE Annals of the History of Computing; Jul-Sep2009, Vol. 31 Issue 3, p20-33, 14p

Title: The business of playing games: players as developers and entrepreneurs.
Authors: Chazerand, Patrice1 patrice.chazerand@isfe.eu; Geeroms, Catherine1 catherine.geeroms@isfe.eu
Source: Digital Creativity; Sep2008, Vol. 19 Issue 3, p185-193, 9p, 1 Chart, 3 Graphs

Title: Work and Employment in Creative Industries: The Video Games Industry in Germany, Sweden and Poland.
Authors: Teipen, Christina1
Source: Economic & Industrial Democracy; Aug2008, Vol. 29 Issue

Title: Digital Consumer Networks and Producer–Consumer Collaboration: Innovation and Product Development in the Video Game Industry.
Authors: ARAKJI, REINA Y.1; LANG, KARL R.2,3,4
Source: Journal of Management Information Systems; Fall2007, Vol. 24 Issue 2, p195-219, 25p, 1 Diagram, 1 Chart, 1 Graph

Books from CLUES, Concordia University Catalogue, search on “Cultural Economy”:

>Creativity, innovation and the cultural economy [electronic resource] / edited by Andy C. Pratt and Paul Jeffcutt : Creativity, innovation and the cultural economy [electronic resource] / edited by Andy C. Pratt and Paul Jeffcutt

The cultural economy edited by Helmut K. Anheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isar ; Annie Paul, associate editor ; Stuart Cunningham, guest editor : The cultural economy / edited by Helmut K. Anheier, Yudhishthir Raj Isar ; Annie Paul, associate editor ; Stuart Cunningham, guest editor

The Blackwell cultural economy reader edited by Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift : The Blackwell cultural economy reader / edited by Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift

These are some interesting reports that cover the video games industry in Canada. In addition, you may want to search for articles that cover this topic.

Reports from Governments

Federal

• Digital Media (Invest in Canada), see in particular “Digital Media – Canada’s Competitive Advantages”
• Small & Medium Enterprise Benchmarking (average income statement for firms with 5 million dollars or less in revenue) : Software Industry (NAICS Code 51121) for Quebec 2008

Provincial – Quebec

• “Technologie de l’information et des communications” from the Ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation du Québec. In particuclar, see: Le marché des jeux vidéo en Nouvelle-Angleterre
• Observatoire de la Culture et des Communications (Institut de la statistique du Québec) has a few reports on “Multimedia” production, in particular: Production multimédia au Québec : portrait des établissements en 2007-2008 (Optique Culture, No 60, Juin 2010).

Municipal – Montréal

• Montréal International – in particular, see: Profil de l’industrie des TIC du Grand Montréal (PDF, 44 p.)
• City of Montreal Public Libraries receive a donation of 5000 video games on April 27th 2012 (press release in French).

Reports from Trade Associations

Entertainment Software Industry Association of Canada

• Under the “Research” tab of their website: Canada’s Entertainment Software Industry in 2011

Alliance Nuérique

• For example: Rapport de TECHNOCompétences sur l’emploi dans l’industrie du jeu électronique au Québec: une croissance soutenue depuis 2002

Reports from Market Research Firms (Concordia Authentification or on-campus access Required)

IBIS World

• 51121e Video Game Software Publishing in the US by Dale Schmidt (March 2012)
• NN003 – Video Games by Dale Schmidt (March 2012)

Euromonitor

• Sign on to Passport GMID and search (top right corner) for “video games canada” (provides industry reports, consumption statistics and company profiles).

PMB Print Measurement Bureau

• PMB Product Data provides results of a yearly survey of over 11000 Canadians’s consumption habit.
• Look under “Home Electronics > Video Game Systems” as well as “Computer, Phones & Internet > Cell Phones/Smartphones/PDA”.

Ipsos news center

• Polls and surveys – perform a keyword search on “video games”

Trends or in the news

See this contest from Creative Commons: Announcing the Liberated Pixel Cup: an epic contest for gaming freedom :

And this is where you come in: “Phase one” of the competition will then be building artwork that matches that guide that should then be uploaded to OpenGameArt and dual licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 and GPLv3. This part of the project will run from June 1st through June 30th. “Phase two” of this competition will be building GPLv3 or later games that incorporate artwork from the artwork building phase of the project. People can work in teams or individually, and this portion of the contest will run from July 1st through July 31st. [read more]

See also: OpenGameArt.org for open licensing digital assets.