Mayor Menino to Outline Plans for Growth of $200M Digital Game Industry in Boston Boston, MA – March 12, 2009 - Boston-based FableVision Studios, the award-winning developer of educational media and digital games, announced today that the firm will host Mayor Thomas M. Menino for the unveiling of a major new initiative to grow and sustain Boston's $200 million digital game industry. Furthering his efforts to support Boston's creative economy, the Mayor will announce two new tools that will continue to position Boston as a national hub for game development. The event will be held at 11am on Friday, March 13th at FableVision, which is co-located at the Boston Children's Museum on Children's Wharf.
"We are very excited by Boston's extraordinary commitment to nurture the digital media & gaming industry. These efforts help us continue to accelerate FableVision's success on the international educational media and gaming landscape," shares FableVision's President Paul Reynolds. "Boston isn't waiting around for an economic revival.We're already playing a new game in a very new world."
As the Office of the Mayor reports, "Boston has all the ingredients in place to be a digital media epicenter: creativity, innovation, outstanding schools, diverse and vibrant communities and, most importantly, a young and talented workforce. These new tools will help the city reach that goal by recruiting new businesses and bringing new jobs."
According to the City's reports, digital media is one of the engines that fuel the Boston-area economy, contributing over $1.5 billion in annual revenues to the greater Boston region, with over 24,000 jobs and over 950 businesses. Since 2007, there have been at least 16 new companies added to the Boston-area game industry, collectively generating more than $200 million in revenues and more than 1,500 jobs.
Says Gary Goldberger, FableVision's Executive Vice President, who also serves as the Regional Leader for Boston's Chapter of Games for Change, "Boston has taken a leadership role on the gaming landscape, and FableVision is thrilled to be helping lead that charge with some of the biggest development projects in the business, including projects for the US Department of Education, Jim Henson Company, and PBS KidsPlay."
In 2007, the City of Boston hosted the PoweringUp Conference at Northeastern University, in which game industry professionals, academics, venture capitalists and economic development experts engaged in a conversation on best approaches for strengthening the Boston-area game industry. The creation of the two new tools, a new website and an eight-member Steering Committee, which will be shared in more detail by the Mayor on Friday morning at FableVision, are direct results from the conference.
| WHERE: | FableVision, 308 Congress Street, 6th Floor On the Top Floor of the Boston Children's Museum, Fort Point Channel |
| WHEN: | Friday, March 13, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. |
