(January 12, 2023 – Toronto, Ontario) –
Interactive Ontario is the trade association representing the Interactive Digital Media (IDM) sector in Ontario. The latter is composed of over 400 producers of video games, immersive (XR) experiences, and interactive entertainment/edutainment applications. Most IDM producers in Ontario are independent and small SMEs. Over 80% of them are video game studios and over 90% of all IDM studios produce video games. Video games of all genres are by far the dominant form of interactive entertainment while immersive applications (video games or otherwise), are slowly emerging.
The CMF has historically been instrumental in supporting the development of the IDM sector in Canada. But times are changing. The global IDM landscape is becoming increasingly competitive, making it more challenging for Canadian IDM producers and IP to succeed. In that context, the IDM industry and the CMF must work together to ensure the continued growth of our future-looking IDM sector in Canada.
Interactive Ontario (IO) welcomes the opportunity to make recommendations to the CMF for the upcoming fiscal 2023-2024. The latter were developed by an IO CMF Task Force composed of 12 industry representatives.
The IO CMF Task Force has also been working on recommendations for fiscals 2024-2025 onwards. We understand from recent communications with the CMF, that the long-term recommendations to the CMF can be submitted in the first quarter of 2023. Therefore, we have made the decision to wait before submitting our long-term recommendations so we can engage in further discussions with the industry and our colleagues from other provinces.
We are looking forward to debating and developing the following recommendations further with the CMF in early 2023.
