Gogii Games Kicking Ass In Moncton, But Spinoff Company Moving To PEI
After almost 10 years in New Brunswick, it’s time for Gogii Games founder George Donovan to look elsewhere.*
That’s a hard decision he says.
Donovan notes recent political and industry changes have forced him to launch his new company, RevIQ, in Prince Edward Island rather than stay in Moncton. He particularly cites the provincial government’s recent reduction in program and tax credits.
“New Brunswick is now the only province in Canada that doesn’t have a digital tax credit or some kind of media labour rebate that allows digital video games to be subsidized in the province. In every other province in the country that’s available,” said Donovan.
“Video game companies are allowed to take a little more risk, build games that are competitive, stay in the county and allow themselves to do that, whereas New Brunswick cancelled that in April.
“We’re being approached constantly by Quebec who has a 60 per cent rebate. Ontario’s in the 40s [per cent range], Nova Scotia is 42, P.E.I. is 25,” Donovan said. “It just continually does not make sense for us to be in a province where we have the opportunity to be elsewhere, do the exact same thing that we’re doing and be much more profitable.”
Donovan’s new company, which he announced at the Tokyo Game Show, will specialize in business intelligence for the video game and mobile app markets. It will help game publishers increase revenue from successful but plateauing mobiles games. The company will officially launch in Charlottetown on October 1.
Gogii Games got its start in 2006 when Donovan’s daughter wanted a puppy.
“My wife didn’t want one, so I founded a video game that represented that dog and this was around the time Nintendogs coming out,” Donovan said.
Working in the licensing industry at the time, he decided to reach out to his gaming connections.
“I contacted a friend of mine who was in the publishing business at Activision and he thought it was a great idea to put it in retail and it took off. That was really the explosion in which Gogii launched on.”
Today Gogii Games has produced 90 unique products on 7 different platforms and in 13 languages. Some of their titles include Archie: Riverside Rescue, Shannon Tweed’s (Gene Simmons’ wife) Attack of the Groupies, Pet Zoometary, Princess Isabella: The Rise of an Heir and many others.
The company’s been able to build a strong base in New Brunswick, often hiring local gaming graduates from the province’s schools to join their team. Despite getting ready to move his new venture to PEI, Donovan says there were benefits to starting his business in New Brunswick.
“Obviously there were no other video game companies here, so anyone who was really passionate about making games was going through school systems which we were connected to, so we had access to good people,” he says. “Living off U.S. dollars has been a huge roller coaster over the last 20 years, but in most cases it has been very positive.”
Donovan says that while current Gogii Games staff will be able to continue to work in New Brunswick, any business growth like RevIQ will happen outside the province. He says they have talked to government about their situation, but with little success.
“We talked to them openly about what we were trying to do. We have very strong growth plans moving forward,” Donovan said.
*Updated to include clarification on previous statements provided by Donovan to note that RevIQ will be established in PEI while Gogii Games current operations will remain in New Brunswick.