The DeanBeat: It’s time for the U.S. to wake up and support game startups

I’ve traveled the world to see the gaming industry, going to faraway places like Helsinki, Finland; London; Marseille and Angouleme, France; Amsterdam; and Shanghai. And in those places, I’ve seen thriving game companies aided by the strong hands of incubators and government support. Now it’s time to take these lessons from abroad and apply them at home. By comparison, the U.S. has a laissez-faire approach that I believe will come back to haunt it.

It’s time for the U.S. industry to do more to support its game startups, or the U.S. will fall behind. I think that the U.S. government and corporate giants like Intel, which recently pledged to invest $300 million in making the tech and gaming industries more diverse, should start nonprofit incubators to help game startups get off the ground. They should also do this for tech companies in general, but let’s focus on gaming. Mobile games have become a $30 billion business worldwide, larger than the console software industry, according to market researcher Newzoo. Mobile is the fastest growing part of gaming.