

Yes. Europe Does Produce Big Tech Companies. - ig1
http://blog.awesomezombie.com/2010/06/yes-europe-does-produce-big-tech.html

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paulgb
I think there's a broader point to be made here: Silicon Valley has an
inherent association with technology partly because it's a center for
_consumer_ technology. Two of the companies mentioned in the tweet that
sparked the post, Skype and Nokia, _need_ to be known to consumers to sell
products. Whereas chip manufacturers don't care whether the average Joe knows
what they do, as long as their potential customers do.

I bet the average consumer these days associates SV with Google, Apple, and
Facebook, not the abundance of technology firms serving enterprise or vertical
markets.

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electromagnetic
You make a valid point, without thinking about it I simply assume most video
games are made in the US. When I actually think about it, I quickly realise
that no, in fact, they're not.

Video games have this mystical ability to avoid being marked by its place of
creation. Looking through my shelf for big names; Mass Effect & Dragonage
(plus an obvious shit ton more beforehand like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter
Nights, etc) are Bioware - Canadian; Assassin's Creed (Beyond Goof & Evil,
Brothers in Arms, Far Cry, Heroes of Might and Magic, Myst, Prince of Persia,
Tom Clancy's ...'s) - Ubisoft Montreal (the second branch of the French game
developer). It's kind of hard to go on without repeating the article, or
filling the entire thread with a mere list of the dozens of game developers
that dominate peoples minds when it comes to video games.

The biggest game company that comes to mind when I think American is Maxis,
and beyond that it's EA - which incidentally hasn't been the sole producer of
a game I've enjoyed in so long that I'm currently completely incapable of
thinking of one.

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manvsmachine
Another point worthy of mention: a lot of Americans tend to disregard tech
that is not as "sexy" or "in your face". Is traditional engineering not tech
anymore? I'd definitely add Volkswagen, Daimler, and BMW (actually, almost
every Euro automaker) to that list; think of how much software / systems
engineering goes into their production cars, much less their racing divisions.
One of the top engineering schools in Germany, TUM, even offers graduate
degrees in automotive software engineering.

