Ontario is spending another $605,000 to spur video game development and production. The provincial government is steering the dollars towards producers through three new training programs at Interactive Ontario, a not-for-profit trade group.

The first, ONtheEdge, will train video game entrepreneurs in new business skills, while the second, GamesID, will provide market intelligence, marketing and promotional support to video game companies that are eyeing potential domestic and international partnerships.

The third program, the Ontario Video Game and Digital Media Investor Network, will actively work to match video game and digital media developers with Canadian and international investors.

Sandra Pupatello, Ontario minister of economic development and trade, says the new money will get footloose global game makers to invest, expand or relocate to Ontario, rather than go elsewhere in Canada or internationally.

‘We need to be competitive,’ the minister said. Her government earlier invested $226 million in a new Toronto development studio planned by French video games giant Ubisoft.

Yannis Mallat, CEO of Ubisoft Montreal, said the French game maker was drawn to Toronto in part by the provincial subsidies, but also by the opportunity to exploit the traditional storytelling skills of Toronto film and TV producers.

Mallat pointed to this month’s launch of two new Ubisoft games, Assassin’s Creed 2 and James Cameron’s Avatar The Game, as encapsulating the current convergence of film and video game production techniques. Both games employ live actors and traditional storytelling narratives to better engage game users technically and emotionally.