NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A West Coast game developer has opened a second studio in New Orleans, but is scaling back plans to fill 75 high-paying jobs with workers in the New Orleans area.
The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reports that Jeff Strain opened his second studio under the parent company Prytania Media with $25 million in backing from a venture capital fund.
Strain said he will keep the company headquarters in New Orleans, where he has moved with his wife and their five children.
However, he’ll follow a growing practice, bolstered during the pandemic, of allowing developers, writers, artists, actors and other professionals to live and work wherever in the world they’d prefer.
Strain said hiring plans were scaled back mainly because of changes in working practices. However, he also cited what he described as cumbersome requirements to obtain incentives offered by the Louisiana Economic Development department, such as accounting for his individual in-state working hours.
The news is bittersweet for the region’s economic development promoters. They had hailed Strain’s decision to relocate to New Orleans as a boost for the city's bid to become a tech-media hub.
Local successes have included TurboSquid, an image database startup that sold for $75 million last year.
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