VANCOUVER — The opening day of the first Vancouver International Game Summit saw New Media BC launch a cross-sector task force that brings together video game, film, TV and music organizers to tackle the challenges facing the province’s new media industry.

‘Vancouver’s been known as a hotspot, a world leader [for digital entertainment]. But we feel we’re starting to lose our lead position, we’re starting to lose our competitive edge,’ said Lynda Brown, president of the nonprofit lobby group, at a media briefing on Thursday. ‘By working together we hope we can address the competition, talent and business cost challenges, and keep the business and talent in B.C.’

Groups on the task force include Radical Entertainment, Propaganda Games, Music BC and the MMPIA, though the list has yet to be finalized. More than 138 video game companies call B.C. home, many of them international leaders, employing up to 3,000 people and generating $300 million in revenues per year, according to NMBC.

‘But this is an industry, video games in particular, where it doesn’t matter where they get made,’ warned Douglas Tronsgard, CEO of Next Level Games, which produced Nintendo’s Super Mario Strikers. ‘Yeah, we were leaders, but now it’s about how to grow.’

‘The industry is changing rapidly. The boundaries are fading between the sectors,’ included in the task force, he said. ‘Nintendo is great to work for, but we want to strengthen Next Level, so we’re not just for-hire.’

Tronsgard cites Shanghai, Singapore and South Korea as B.C.’s biggest competitors.

‘The bottom line is about being more competitive,’ said Brown. The task force will work with industry and government to identify crossover issues, determine shared priorities and develop a strategy within three months.

The launch comes one day after Electronic Arts made a $1-million grant to a new masters of digital media program starting this fall at the Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver.

At a press conference at the EA campus in Burnaby, exec Paul Lee, a Vancouver native, said he sees B.C. becoming ‘the destination of choice for the next generation of creative leaders.’

The MDM two-year program is a joint effort between the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the British Columbia Institute of Technology and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. The Vancouver International Game Summit concludes on Friday.