Troy

Assemblyman John McDonald is pushing a $50 million tax credit program for the video game industry in New York state, and he is hoping that if adopted as part of next year's budget that it could help grow an industry that has taken hold in downtown Troy and other parts of the Capital Region and wants to grow even more.

On Thursday, McDonald hosted a panel discussion at the Troy Innovation Garage on Fourth Street in downtown Troy to discuss the tax credit plan with local video game executives and academics.

Participants included Velan Studios founder and CEO Karthik Bala as well as Simon Ebejer, the chief operating officer of Vicarious Visions and Ben Chang, director of the Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.

While trying to sell the public on the need for more business tax breaks is tough, especially when there are indications that the state's finances are in trouble, Bala and Ebejer especially said that the video game industry has reached in inflection point in the Capital Region where there has been a tremendous amount of investment in the past decade, creating a workforce with several hundred people.

But to get to the next level, more startups have to be created, and companies like Activision, which owns Menands-based Vicarious Visions, have to decide to invest more capital in the region.

Ebejer said that with other places like Texas and Quebec having generous incentives for video gaming companies, it can be difficult for his parent company to want to add more resources. He said that Massachusetts is looking at a tax break program, and Connecticut and Rhode Island already have incentive programs that target the video game industry.

"All of those places are going to be ahead of us if we don't do something about it," Ebejer said.

McDonald points out that New York state already has a tax credit program for the film industry to shoot films in New York state. He says that the video game industry is a better investment because it doesn't pack up and leave once a movie is done shooting.

"The reality is, the (film) companies come in, they do their thing, and then they move on," McDonald said, adding that since workers in the video game industry may overlap skills with the movie industry, there are synergies with the types of workers the industries support.

Troy Mayor Patrick Madden, who also participated in the panel, said that the smart and well-paid workforce that the video game industry has attracted are behind the revival of downtown Troy, which has seen an influx of restaurants, new apartments and cultural additions.

"I don't think it's a coincidence," Madden said.

Some also suggested that at least in Troy, a video game tax credit could help offset the impact that the loss of the federal historic tax credit could have. That's because so many of the employees that the video game industry in Troy is hiring choose to live in downtown Troy nearby Velan Studios and other firms.

"It's amazing," Bala said. "They're falling in love with downtown Troy."