Village Gamer

In light of yesterday’s announcement that Facebook has purchased the Oculus Rift’s developers, Vancouver’s Oculus VisionTech Inc. advises that there is no material change in the affairs of the Company and the Company is not associated with the recently announced transaction involving Facebook Inc. and Oculus VR Inc. Oculus VisionTech Inc (Oculus) designs and markets technology for delivery of digital media. Oculus developed its MediaEscort, MediaSentinel and SmartMark digital watermarking products and technologies to provide a robust means for producers and distributors to invisibly protect their content.

Companies thirsting for robust, network neutral colocation options in downtown Vancouver now have a new option. Cologix, a denver-based network neutral interconnection and data centre company, is opening its second Vancouver location today, providing an additional 15,000 square feet of inventory at 1050 West Pender Street (VAN 2). Read the rest of this entry »

The global gaming software industry witnessed strong growth during the last five years and is expected to continue the same growth momentum and reach an estimated $80.7 billion by 2018, according to the new Growth Opportunities In Global Gaming Software Industry 2013-2018: Trends, Forecasts and Opportunities Analysis from Research And Markets. Due to lack of direct alternative for gaming software, the industry is expected to flourish as long as smartphones, consoles, and handheld gaming devices exist. The next generations of consoles will further boost the industry over the forecast period. Read the rest of this entry »

Clio, a Vancouver-based comprehensive cloud-based practice management platform for the legal industry, announced today that it raised $20 million in Series C financing led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Over the next 12 months, Clio will use the new funding to accelerate product development and sales, and fuel international expansion. The Series C funding brings total capital raised to $27 million.
As the vertical SaaS market takes shape, this investment is another proof point that cloud tech is hitting the tipping point of broad adoption by traditional industries like legal. Over 80% of lawyers in the U.S. practice at firms of less than 10 employees; these small firms rely on Clio to automate time-consuming administrative tasks, which allows them to focus on their core business. Read the rest of this entry »

On March 20, 2014, a total of six provincial regulators announced two main proposals for new Crowdfunding prospectus exemptions that would allow early stage companies such as start-ups and SMEs to raise up to $1.5 million of capital online through the issuance of securities. This represents a significant leap forward and positive progress for Crowdfunding advocates such as the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA Canada), who has been working diligently with key industry stakeholders, government, regulators, media, eco-system partners and academia, since launching in October 2012, to provide education, research and valuable input into the development of a viable ‘made in Canada’ framework.  Read the rest of this entry »

Roadhouse Interactive Limited has announced the launch of its publishing services division. This new division will partner and collaborate with leading developers from around the world to help them plan and implement every facet of live game operations. This new division will be led by the team from the newly acquired Chunky Pig, an industry-leading digital marketing company. The marketing and distribution experience of the Chunky Pig team will perfectly complement the game design and service expertise of Roadhouse Interactive. Read the rest of this entry »

You are invited to join the CanWIT BC Chapter for breakfast on March 19 as the group hosts Small Business Start Up: How A Business Plan Will Help You Launch – And Grow – Your Company. If you are aching to turn your great idea into a business – but you don’t know where to start – talk to Celeste Munger from Write Ahead Inc., a team of consultants, writers, and trainers who help entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses that support their lives and passions. Grab their free report, 5 Critical Steps for Taking Your Business from Idea to Open, and learn to build your business the “write” way. Read the rest of this entry »

Burnaby’s Animatrik Film Design has announced the expansion of its Virtual Production services offerings through the addition of the first Solid Track system in North America. Animatrik is further enhancing its SolidTrack system with Ultimatte Real-time Chroma keying; Encodacam lens encoders from General Lift; and two high performance Autodesk MotionBuilder systems. The result will deliver a solution capable of visualizing CG characters, sets and props in real-time, with support for camera zooms and minimal latency while shooting live action. Read the rest of this entry »

The Entertainment Software Association of Canada has announced the appointment of Tanya Woods as its new Vice-President, Policy and Legal Affairs. Tanya joins ESAC from Bell Canada (BCE) where she acted as Legal Counsel on regulatory and copyright matters in Ottawa.  At Bell, Tanya’s primary role was to serve as BCE’s in-house copyright expert advising senior executives on a range of policy matters such as multi-platform licensing, anti-piracy, legislative reform, international trade agreements and corporate policy. Tanya has experience dealing with government and regulatory issues, having participated in a number of multi-sectoral coalitions and working groups and has appeared as a witness at parliamentary committees reviewing legislation such as copyright reform.  Read the rest of this entry »

To drive innovation in the social space, HootSuite has announced the launch of HootSuite Labs, a team focused on developing the next generation of social technologies. With origins as a ‘startup within a startup’, Labs explores emerging digital technologies and engages with HootSuite’s early adopters and select customers to shape the future of social media and digital marketing. As part of Connect via HootSuite in San Francisco, HootSuite Labs hosted an Innovator’s Breakfast where enterprise clients were invited to help shape the product roadmap and provide feedback on the latest developments. Read the rest of this entry »