While the majority of video game industry workers reside in California, Illinois holds its own when it comes to video game jobs and revenue generated for the state, according to a new report by the Entertainment Software Association.
Illinois is the fifth largest state in terms of video game employment, with over 5,900 jobs across the state. Just four states--California, Washington, Texas, and New York--are ahead of Illinois in terms of overall employment. Florida and Massachusetts round out the top seven.
The US video game industry generates $354 million in annual revenue in Illinois, according to the ESA. Illinois employees in the gaming industry earned an average compensation of $102,000 per year in 2015, the report found.
"The (video game) industry is in more cities and places than just California, and Illinois is a big state for the industry," said Dan Hewitt, the VP of media relations at the ESA, a trade association that represents companies that publish computer and video games. "These are high paying, technical, creative jobs."
Chicago's emergence as a tech hub has centered primarily around business to business technology (think Trustwave, SMS Assist, Braintree, Fieldglass, Cleversafe, etc.). But the city has quietly established itself as a center for gaming innovation. Perhaps the city's most well-known video game developer and publisher was Midway Games, creator of such classics as Mortal Kombat, NFL Blitz and NBA Jam. Midway closed in 2009 after filing for bankruptcy.
Today there are 97 video game-related companies in Illinois, which ranks sixth most in the US, according to the ESA. Local game makers include Noggin Labs, Phosphor games and Deep Silver. Electronic Arts has an office in Springfield, as does Zynga. And we're seeing new gaming startups like 60-second multiplayer mobile game company Gunslinger Studios and the video game-style surgical training platform LevelEX
Illinois also has 16 college programs focused on video game design, one of the most in the country. This helps establish a pipeline of video game upstarts in the state, Hewitt said.
"When students get a video game degree, they often stay in that area. And they go on to open up development studios and attract publishers to that region," he said. "The industry grows and flourishes where there's highly talented and capable individuals."
The ESA published an interactive map that breaks down the video game companies and college courses by state.
