Victoria's gaming industry booms

• Yes, frequently—I'm a die-hard gamer
• Yes, but only when I'm bored
• Sometimes when I'm with friends
• No, it's not my chosen pastime

⛅ Today's weather: Mix of sun and cloud. High 23C / low 12C.   

🌫️ Air quality: Low risk today (3/10), light smoke expected.

After new clues were discovered in the search for Melissa McDevitt, a woman who went missing in December while on a hike, Sooke RCMP confirmed yesterday that it has renewed its search for her.

Recently, McDevitt’s family found that they had access to her GPS watch data that had tracked her movements before the battery died, adding an aspect to the RCMP search that was not previously known.

While the investigation remained open, search and rescue efforts ended on Dec. 19—nine days after they began—when no evidence of McDevitt’s whereabouts were found. McDevitt had gone for a hike in the Sea to Sea park, the second largest regional park in the CRD, with limited cell reception in the area.

The new information has revived search and rescue efforts, which are planned to start again on July 8. RCMP is asking people to avoid the area around Charter’s River near the Sooke Potholes, where her car was found the day she was reported missing.

Read more from Tori Marlan on how McDevitt’s family has fought to keep the search for Melissa going.

It’s no secret that Victoria has become an epicentre of Canadian tech innovation, but a growing number of game creators have begun to put the city on the map for advancements in the video game industry.

When EA acquired Metalhead software, a Victoria gaming company known for its Super Mega Baseball series, it revived EA’s long-defunct baseball gaming legacy, releasing Super Mega Baseball 4 in June. This acquisition has been turning heads in the gaming community, proving Victoria’s industry is one to watch in this sector.

As game production became more accessible outside of major cities, gaming startups through Facebook and Steam brought many local creators their start. Creators from Kano, Hololabs, and Codename Entertainment point to the collaborative nature of the gaming industry here as a reason for the unprecedented growth.

From artificial intelligence to virtual reality, the landscape of gaming is changing rapidly—and tech professionals have their eyes on what’s taking place in Victoria.

“I think it's really a part of the broader British Columbian and Canadian story about that,” said Eric Jordan, CEO of Codename Entertainment. “There's a really long history of people making games in Canada overall. And then within BC.''

Read more on why Victoria has grown from a small hub of gaming startups to an eventual hotbed for innovation.

Three others were rescued Friday after a 12-metre yacht called A Little Serenity took on water and sank in the Salish Sea, about 3km south of Victoria. A woman and two teenage girls were air rescued by the US Coast Guard and were taken to Victoria General as they were showing signs of hypothermia. In a video of the rescue, a dog is also shown being hoisted from the boat.

The Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC) told CTV that the deceased man was found near the vessel’s wreckage by the Canadian Coast Guard an hour later. BC Coroners Services confirmed with Capital Daily that they are currently investigating the death.

The yacht is registered in Washington, and all those aboard were US citizens.

It is still unknown what caused the vessel to take on water and what caused the man’s death.