Gaming giant Electronic Arts, which has multiple major offices in Canada, is slated to lay off up to 1,000 employees. The layoffs at EA, which owns Edmonton-born BioWare, were first reported by Derek Andersen at The Startup Grind.

EA later released a statement, stating that "there are no layoffs … EA is growing and hiring and building teams." EA then issued a second statement to Joystiq, stating that the company is "looking to hire hundreds of people."

The Montreal International Game Summit (MIGS) has launched their call for speakers to take part in its ninth annual edition.

Taking place this year as part of MTL DGTL on November 13 and 14, 2012, at the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure, this highly regarded conference seeks experts who can share their knowledge through a one-hour, English-language lecture. Professionals are invited to speak to one of six gaming disciplines: business; arts and VFX; audio; design; production; or technology.

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity of sitting down with Digital Extremes’ (creators of the recently-released The Darkness II) very own Michael Schmalz. Before our conversation, he’d mentioned how he predicted things reluctantly, just because the whole landscape could change so fast. It’s true; seven years ago, who would have thought mobile adoption would have grown as quickly as it did? (If at all?)

Nonetheless, we started chatting about the current state and the future of gaming, and emerging trends and changes in patterns in the industry.

The finalists in fourteen categories for the upcoming Canadian Videogame Awards were announced today.

Over 100 nominations were received this year from all parts of Canada, with 28 games represented in the list of finalists. All awards are for work developed in Canada and released in 2011. Winners will be voted on by a body of industry experts from across the country, however members of the public can get in the game and cast their vote for Canadian Game of the Year as well.

The Canadian Videogame Awards will be held in Vancouver on Saturday, April 21 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Check out the nominees for Game of the Year, Best Mobiile Game and Best Social/Casual Game below.

The Canadian Interactive Alliance has announced that attendance from Canadian companies at Game Developers Conference in the U.S. is up 50% from 2011. This is the strongest Canadian presence at GCDC ever, CIAIC noted.

“The Canadian presence at this year's conference is astounding,” said CIAIC president and CEO Ian Kelso. “In the middle of this recession, our games industry continues to defy expectations. Canada is well-known internationally for its large-scale blockbuster studios such as Ubisoft and Electronic Arts, but the real story this year is the fast-growing number of smaller, independent game studios finding mainstream success.”