Playing Power

Aside from health care and neighborhood dive bars across America, there aren’t many industries that have managed well during the current economic downturn. But one in particular continues to take the Puget Sound region by storm, offering new and innovative ideas to the field as it attracts more and more followers: video games.

Seattle now ranks in the first tier-tied with the Bay Area-for competitiveness in the video game industry, according to a new survey. The 2009 Interactive Media Competitiveness Study, released by enterpriseSeattle, also ranks Seattle second for the number of video game companies.

Video games sales continue to soar and game developers refuse to let the economic crisis stifle their creativity. Gaming experts at enterpriseSeattle’s annual Power of Play luncheon in September reported that although the industry is feeling the pinch of the economy more than last year, gamers remain committed to dreaming up technologically savvier creations.

For instance, Jeff Pobst, founder and CEO of Hidden Path Entertainment in Bellevue, demonstrated new software that could be brought to any type of device that has a camera, including PCs, cell phones and game consoles. The software uses the camera to track the user’s movements relative to the device, allowing a user to interact physically with digital objects on screen. Microsoft has been testing a similar technology, code-named Project Natal, for its next-generation consoles. Designers created the technology with the intention of enabling a new class of games where players interact with the game with natural movements. Pobst also hopes there may be some applications for helping people with disabilities who may not be able to use a computer mouse.

“Overall, with new technologies such as Project Natal coming out from Microsoft, we believe our technology has the opportunity to be complementary to that and help us make even better game experiences,” Pobst said.

The Puget Sound game industry grew at a rate of 14 percent between 2006 and 2008. Seattle currently has more than 150 video game developing companies, generating $4.2 billion a year. Many of these regional companies have established a reputation as global leaders in the world of game developing.