The DeanBeat: Pittsburgh steels itself to become a regional game hub

Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center is a sprawling building on the banks of Pittsburgh’s Monongahela River. It attracts students from around the globe, and it is a primary source of talent for the city’s technology and game industry. And, quite symbolically, it is part of a 48-acre research park that was once a gigantic steel mill.

The ETC and the companies it has spawned are where the old economy meets the new, and it shows the kind of economic transformation that is possible in regions that were once described as the Rust Belt. It shows that you can create games anywhere, and you don’t have to be anywhere near Silicon Valley or Hollywood. In fact, as a region, it has some advantages for the startups growing up there.