New York Game Companies (list of)

A few months ago, the Center for an Urban Future published a report on the challenges and opportunities of the NYC game industry. As the first of its kind, it takes a long hard look at NYC game scene. According to them, there are fifty-five companies in total, employing approximately 1,200 people. (To compare, Boston houses 75 and Maryland 60.)

Anyway, as my graduation nears, I’m reviewing employment options. One of which is a job in the game industry. After the jump, there’ll be a happy list of ninety-three game and game-related (i.e. music) companies in NY. For your convenience.

This Friday, I’m organizing a two-panel discussion at the Columbia Business School. One of the panels will focus on NYC-based game development and publishing. I will do a quick write-up afterwards. Promise.

4mm Games
4Real Dough
area/code
Arkadium Games
Atari
Audiobrain
Bitwreck Consulting
Black Hammer Productions
Boonty
Brand X Audio
BrandGames
Brash Entertainment
Brooklyn Games
Cashmere Productions
Cellufun
Codemasters
Massive Incorporated
Cutlass (?)
Darktone Music
Digital Flux Entertainment, LLC
Double Trump
Electric Funstuff
Electric Sheep Company
Entertainment Software Ratings Board
First Star Software, Inc.
Freeverse
Fuel Industries
Funny Garbage
Gaia Industries
Game Shastra
Game Trust
GameDaily (owned by AOL)
Gamelab
Gameloft
Games for Change
Gotham Wave Games
Graham Software Development
Green Screen Interactive Software
Heavy Melody Music
HipnTasty
IGA Partners
IGN Entertainment (NewsCorp subsidiary; New York regional office)
Imagery Media
Inferno Games
Invasiv Studios
Jesper Kyd Productions
Kaos Studios (division of THQ, Inc.)
Kuma Reality Games
Large Animal Games
Lifetime Games
Live Gamer
Longtail Studios
Manifesto Games
Massively Mobile
MasurLaw
Matrix Games
Modstar
NOKs
Oberon Media
OneNine Studios
Pop & Co.
Powerhead Games
Rebel Monkey
Robox Studios
Rooftop Music
Saber Interactive
Sandbox Strategies
Scholastic
Shared State Productions
Shift Control
SMERC Design
Sortasoft
Sound for Games
Sound Psychic
Soundguild
Super Ego Games
Take-Two Interactive (includes Rockstar Games)
Templar Studios LLC
The Game Agency
Themis Group: TAP Interactive
Thornhill Partners
Thumbplay
Tiny Mantis Entertainment
TriplePoint
Viacom
Vivendi
VRShell, LLC
Wadjet Eye Games
World Leaders Entertainment
Worldwide Biggies
XS Games
Zango
Ziff Davis Media


Discussion (12 comments)
Mark November 3rd, 2008 (12:23 pm)

Wow. That’s a very handy list!
Do you know how they went about making it?
Know of similar lists by other orgs for other cities across the US (like here in Seattle)? :)

Joost November 3rd, 2008 (12:29 pm)

The list of the Center for an Urban Future consists of only 55: I added the names of game companies I’ve encountered over the years.

jaumeAV February 12th, 2009 (12:30 pm)

Hi Joost! thanx for the list.

I’m a designer, for print and interactive, who is at the moment thinking about trying a change of industry, from the advertising to the gamins one.

It would be from an artistic point of view, design and art part of the industry, what im interested in.

Im residing in NY at the moment, and would like to know if theres somewhere where i could learn a good basis, some course, to learn and prepare myself for this industry, adding to what i know in my years as illustrator and designer.

also, if you think, that only with my own capabilities as a designer and illustrator would be enough to get a job in the game industry…

thankyou! :)

Joost February 12th, 2009 (5:37 pm)

jaumeAV,

There are lots of people who transition from a more traditional industry into gaming, because there exist a lot of similarities. But why don’t you try the IGDA? They have a local chapter in NYC and regularly organize meetings and events.

Jd

jaumeAV February 15th, 2009 (2:41 am)

hey joost, thanx for your advice. i’ll check it out :)

XgameR February 16th, 2009 (3:44 pm)

Hey jaumeAV,

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out http://www.nycgameindustry.com.

That site pretty much covers it all (school/company listings, forums, job page, etc.) and is by far the best resource I’ve been able to find. I’m in a similar boat as you and the community there is really friendly and helpful.

Good luck!

Dereck October 7th, 2009 (10:58 am)

Hello, My name is Dereck, and I am very interested In the job of testing games, or even playing games at that. I would like to know how to go about that, so please any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated.

Even Sandbakken October 30th, 2009 (3:22 pm)

Thank you all for the great lists and advice’s. I am currently in the prosess of relocating to NYC , and I dont know anything about the company’s there. After the regression I Imagine it is hard getting any sort of job with any game company , so I am really hoping for an internship or a slave job. Belive me , I would be the coffee boy that is on standby over phone just to get my foot in the door with a game company these days.
Any more hints and tips would be greatly appreciated.
thank you

Dv8thwonder March 2nd, 2010 (3:55 am)

55 game companies in my backyard. Impressive.

sakeboy November 19th, 2010 (4:16 pm)

Sad to say, as of November 2010, about 1/3 of these links lead are dead, implying that many of these companies have gone out of business (or been bought I suppose). Another bunch are not really game makers but audio or marketing services. And yet more have moved out of NYC. But there are some gems in there. Thanks for this list.

XxACexX November 26th, 2010 (1:03 pm)

Im currently a freshman in college majoring in computer science living in NYC.I have no experience but what would you reccomend a begginer like me to start of with for experience?

Shirar January 4th, 2011 (6:44 pm)

If you’re interested in learning more about the digital media and what is happening in Canada, the Canadian Consulate here in New York is hosting a Digital Media Seminar on January 27th from 6pm -8:30pm. If you would like more information, just send me an email and I’ll forward the details – shirar@thepontgroup.com.

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