Outrage over Arizona's controversial immigration-enforcement law figures to have a comprehensive effect on all business there, video games included. One indie developer says he must move operations to California because the actors he needs won't travel to the state.
G4 noticed a report by local Arizona television in which the CEO of a casual-games developer complained that his latest, $2 million production had 30 actors signed up to record lines. They all backed out, citing Arizona's new law that, once implemented, charges local law enforcement with detaining illegal immigrants and empowering them to demand documentation based on standards many consider to be racial profiling.
"They don't want to come to be harassed," Adam Goldman, of Mojo-Bone Software Studios, said of the voice talent for his next game, code-named Project Blue Ghost. "They don't want to be associated with anything in Phoenix right now." Goldman told KTVK-TV of Phoenix that he has to move the recording session to Los Angeles.
Arizona, according to gamedevmap, has 13 developers in Tucscon and Phoenix.
Controversial Arizona Immigration Bill Even Affecting Video Game Developers [G4]