Ever since the pioneering Origin Systems germinated in Austin during the mid-1980's, this city has grown to become a recognized global hub of creative, technical and business talent in the games industry. Over the years, many of the top companies in games -- Electronic Arts, Nintendo, Sony, Disney, NCsoft, Zynga, Zenimax -- have had significant studio operations here, some built from scratch, others that evolved from an acquisition. Many more Austin development studios have created critically acclaimed and/or best-selling hit games for pretty much every other top publisher in the business. But over these past 25 years the end results of these efforts have been mixed at best as projects have been cancelled, studios shuttered, and the talented teams cast into the wind. Yet the overall pool of game biz talent in Austin continues to push toward 10,000 strong. So the next big question is: how do we break this slave studio cycle to create healthy headquarter game companies here?
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