Toronto Metropolitan University has officially opened its Red Bull Gaming Hub, a dedicated centre that aims to grow the Toronto video game industry.
Located in university’s The Creative School on 80 Gould Street, the Red Bull Gaming Hub will focus on three core pillars: video game design, virtual production and esports broadcasting.
The space will be home to classes featuring leading-edge curriculum to help students pursue careers in the gaming industry, as well as extracurricular activities like live streaming and esports tournaments.
The Red Bull Gaming Hub comes out of a collaboration between Toronto Metropolitan University, Red Bull Canada and esports companies OverActive Media and Waveform Entertainment. To celebrate the opening, a variety of guests attended a September 15th launch event — Toronto Mayor John Tory; Mohamed Lachemi, Toronto Metropolitan University President & Vice-Chancellor; Charles Falzon, Dean of The Creative School; Kristopher Alexander, Director of the Red Bull Gaming Hub and video game and esports professor; Chris Overholt, president and CEO of OverActive Media; Salil Gupta, CTO of Waveform Entertainment.
In terms of equipment, the hub features:
- Open broadcasting software
- Unreal Engine 5, the latest version of one of the most commonly used game development engines
- Thirty-six high-performance gaming PCs equipped with top-of-the-line AMD technology
- Eight 4KHD televisions
- 5:1 surround sound speaker system
- Classic games library
Of course, there’s also some fully-stacked Red Bull fridges.
Why it matters
More than three billion people around the world play games, and the global games market is expected to generate around $200 billion USD (about $264.6 billion CAD) in 2022 alone. In Canada, specifically, more than 23 million people play games — in other words, half the country’s population.
Further, Canada is the third-largest producer of games in the world, with the national games market accounting for $5.5 billion of the country’s total GDP in 2021. Of the 900-plus gaming studios across the country, roughly 300 are located in Ontario. Therefore, the Red Bull Gaming Hub serves as another way for Ontario’s gaming community — and, by extension, Canada’s — to further reach more people, including those in other countries.
It’s also the second big gaming launch in Toronto this week. On September 14th, Montreal-based Behaviour Interactive, Canada’s largest independent gaming studio, expanded into Ontario with a new Toronto office. For more on that, check out our interview with Rémi Racine, CEO of the Dead by Daylight company.
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