Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 33

1(1, Oliver sticks with balanced-budget mantra C3 Canada's hemp industry shows growth C2 Financial Post C4-5 Real Estate C9 edmontonjournal.combusiness VENTURE A 640.98 4.27 DOLLAR A 78.87 0.17 NASDAQ A 4,997.70 75.30 NYMEX OIL $52.74 DOW A 17,760.41211.79 NYMEX GAS $2.770.04 GOLD A 14,411.07 132.58 SE TI 0 EDI TSX TOR: MARK IYPE, 780-429-5125; businessMmontonjournal.com SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2015 We're caught between a rate cut and a hard place Economists try to nation flirts with GORDON ISFELD Financial Post Ottawa If Bank of Canada watchers were waiting for the other shoe to drop, the latest employment data came down without as much as a thud. Hiring eased back in June, but only marginally, following an over-the-top jump the previous month leaving the jobless rate in a holding pattern and providing precious little direction ahead of next week's critical policy rate decision. The muddled economic environment finds many forecasters maybe most on the cut-now side of the debate, while others are still arguing against a quick fix that might accomplish as little as the previous 25-basis-point trim six months ago that took the trendsetting level to 0.75 per cent. Canada is now flirting with or already hitched to -another recession. The first find hope as recession again quarter of 2015 was a disaster, in the form of a 0.6-per cent contraction, originally blamed on the initial impact of tumbling crude prices, harsh North America weather and port disruptions on the U.S.

West Coast. But the "front-loaded" optimism over the severity of the oil-market implosion, as offered by Stephen Poloz, the central bank governor, quickly evaporated despite policy-makers' sudden and unexpected cut in their long-standing rate in January. The second quarter is looking much the same as the first. Poloz now finds himself "between the proverbial rock and ahard place," said Sherry Cooper, chief economist at Dominion Lending Centres. "If he cuts rates, he will be harshly criticized for contributing to a further rise in household debt and to feeding a housing bubble in Vancouver and Toronto.

See JOBS page C8 Beamdog unveiled video game Baldur's Gate: Dragonspear at the Art Gallery of Alberta Thursday night. The resurrection of Baldur's Gate Beamdog banks on series as it launches first expansion in years projections, but says that Beamdog's 2012 remake, Baldur's Gate: EnhancedEdi-tion, has sold over a million copies, while BioWare's 1998 original sold about 2.8 million copies. "I'm planning conservative, but hoping massively successful," he says. Oster wants to eventually develop Baldur's Gate 3. Sean Gouglas, a University of Alberta professor who teaches courses on video games, says that games built in the style of Baldur's Gate were dormant for about a decade because publishers viewed them as niche products with limited appeal.

That style is now experiencing a revival because of the rise of digital distribution through online stores like Steam that allows developers to market directly to consumers without support from a publisher. But that creates new challenges because thousands of games are released every week. Associating a game to a successful property is a way to CARSON JEREMA Edmonton Journal Nearly two decades after Baldur's Gate put Edmonton's BioWare on the map as a serious video game studio, several companies are piggybacking on the success of the classic series. Baldur's Gate is widely credited with reviving and popularizing fantasy role-playing games in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And at least three different developers are hoping to cash in on that legacy by building games that are marketed directly or indirectly as Baldur's Gate successors.

In 2009, BioWare veterans Trent Oster and Cameron Tofer started Beamdog, also based in Edmonton, as an online video game store. But it wasn't until they negotiated a deal to remaster and re-release the original mjt ZT-r get noticed. "We have games that are tying to an intellectual property directly or indirectly that will get attention even though there are thousands of other games coming out at the same time," Gouglas says. Crowdfunding, which tends to be biased toward nostalgia, is another reason games with a 1990s flavour are being developed Facing closure in 2012, Irvine, California developer Obsidian Entertainment launched a Kickstarter campaign for a project that was marketed as a return to the Baldur's Gate model. The campaign raised over $3.9 million and resulted in Pillars of Eternity, which was released to critical acclaim this past March.

"Pillars takes what makes Baldur's Gate great and does that," says Obsidian president Feargus Urquhart, who worked on the original Baldur's Gate in a publishing role. See BIOWARE page C8 HOP DOLLAR PAID FOR TRADES! Baldur's Gate games that the fledgling studio began to thrive. Thursday night at the Art Gallery of Alberta, Beamdog officially hitched its future to the series by unveiling Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear, the first original expansion since 2001. A release date hasn't been announced. "We've made a big bet on it, there's no question," Oster says.

"If it's a failure, it doesn't mean the end of us outright, but it probably means some pretty hard discussions." Set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe, Siege of Dragonspear looks like a game that was released in the 1990s, but with more polish. The technology behind it is an improved version of Bio-Ware's 17-year-old Infinity engine. Oster won't give exact sales WHEN YOU ti way Hwer Cover, MyFord GEOFF ROBINSTHE CANADIAN PRESS According to Statistics Canada, employment declined by 6,400 in June, with the addition of 64,800 full-time jobs being offset by a loss of 71,200 part-time positions. PAY WHAT WE PAY Slm T3SES1 ABOVE EXPECTATIONS I A 111X1 I Street, Nisku, AB 780.955.FORD Toll Free: 1.866.527.9494 www.niskuford.ca 2015 EDGEfSEL AWD 1 jp vi EDG537. 2.0 Ecrtoost Automatic.

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