The video game industry is evolving rapidly, with rising costs, technical complexity, and fierce competition challenging studios of all sizes. Ayming helps transform these pressures into opportunities by unlocking funding that fuels innovation, stability, and growth.
Video Game
Addressing the key challenges
The video game industry has become one of the largest and fastest-growing entertainment markets in the world, but this growth comes with a complex set of challenges. These issues affect both the creative and technical aspects of game creation in an overcrowded market, while the sustainability of studios and the people behind them is increasingly at risk as funding becomes more difficult, smaller, and scarce.
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Rising production costs & scope creep: Players expect cutting-edge visuals and immersive worlds, requiring larger teams, advanced tools, and longer development cycles.
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Technological complexity & market fragmentation: Constantly evolving hardware and game engines force studios to adapt quickly while optimizing for multiple platforms.
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Discoverability & monetization pressures: Balancing creative vision with business models like free-to-play, subscriptions, or microtransactions is increasingly difficult in a saturated market.
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Community expectations & post-launch demands: Games now operate as live services, requiring continuous updates, expansions, and player engagement, stretching resources well beyond launch.
At Ayming, we help studios overcome these hurdles by unlocking funding opportunities and securing valuable tax credits. We also provide strategic guidance tailored to the unique needs of the gaming industry. With our support, developers can continue innovating, growing, and thriving in an increasingly competitive landscape.
How we can help to maximize your results
We help game studios identify and capture all eligible R&D activities across your projects—from engine development, game mechanics innovation, AI integration, to new tools and platform optimization.
Our full-service support includes:
- Framing SR&ED-eligible activities: Game development often combines creative design, technical experimentation, and production workflows, making it difficult to isolate eligible R&D. We work with your teams to extract and frame the innovative portions of your work. Whether it’s prototyping gameplay mechanics, developing AI systems, or optimizing cross-platform performance. Ayming also trains your teams to spot eligible activities in real time.
- Technical Expertise and Project Framing: Our experienced consultants bridge the gap between your development teams and CRA auditors, translating complex technical innovation into compliant language. We map your R&D to the CRA’s three-part test: technological uncertainty, experimentation, and advancement. This ensures eligible work is clearly distinguished from routine production.
- Clarifying eligibility in collaborative projects: Studios working with external partners, publishers, or contractors often assume some work isn’t eligible. We assess collaboration structures, IP ownership, and technical scope to determine what qualifies and advise on structuring future projects to maximize eligibility.
- Accurate cost tracking across projects: We help studios identify and separate eligible SR&ED costs from other commercial activities, including allocating staff time, contractor fees, and software or hardware resources. We also recommend internal tracking systems to clearly document R&D activities across multiple game development projects.
- Audit defense and compliance strategy: The SR&ED program is technical and constantly evolving. Ayming provides guidance on audit trends and policy updates affecting the gaming sector. If selected for review, we manage the end-to-end audit process to minimize disruption to your studio.
Whether you are developing new game engines, prototyping advanced AI, or optimizing gameplay across multiple platforms, we transform your innovation into high-impact funding claims that maximize financial returns while ensuring compliance.
Ayming helps your game studio unlock the full potential of Quebec’s Multimedia Tax Credit (MMTC). This refundable credit allows you to reclaim up to 37.5% on labour costs for your studio. It provides more resources to fuel innovation, accelerate production, and bring your most ambitious games to life.
Claiming the MMTC is a multi-step process, including certification from agencies like Investissement Québec before submitting your application to the Revenue Agency. Ayming guides your studio through every step. We maximize your funding, ensure no overlap with SR&ED claims, and help you plan hiring, outsourcing, and project development. This ensures your creative work generates significant financial returns.
We guide video game studios through the full spectrum of direct funding, ranging from government grants and repayable loans to strategic programs that accelerate development, technology adoption, and studio growth.
Our mission is to secure the capital you need to bring ambitious game projects to life, support R&D in engine and gameplay innovation, and scale your studio operations. We work closely with your leadership to align projects with federal and provincial priorities, including technology development, digital innovation, and workforce growth. Our team builds compelling applications that maximize funding success while positioning your studio at the forefront of Canada’s gaming innovation ecosystem.
Our comprehensive support includes:
- Grant Applications
- Pre-Application Strategy & Positioning
- Government Relationships & Advocacy
- Funding Landscape Mapping & Strategy
- Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Funding Strategy
- Post-Approval Compliance & Claim Support
Whether you’re developing next-generation game engines, integrating AI for smarter gameplay, or expanding your studio to deliver larger-scale projects, we help you build a strategic funding roadmap that fuels innovation and drives sustainable growth.
Learn more about Government Grants and the full-service support that Ayming provides:
We help video game studios leverage Quebec’s Incentive Deduction for the Commercialization of Innovations (IDCI), a tax incentive that can reduce the provincial tax rate on eligible income from qualified intellectual property assets (QIPAs) from 11.5% to as low as 2%. This incentive applies to studios that conduct R&D in Quebec and earn income from the commercialization of QIPAs, whether in Quebec or globally.
By combining this incentive with strategic investments in technology, tools, and production processes, studios can improve financial efficiency, accelerate commercialization, and maximize the return on their intellectual property. Our experts ensure the program is fully optimized and compliant, empowering game studios to scale innovative projects, protect their IP, and strengthen their competitive edge.
Expert opinion
Shaping the Future of Game Development
Our latest insights and strategies showcase how today’s gaming studios can unlock funding, fuel innovation, and achieve sustainable growth.
