At this year's E3 Media and Business Summit keynote, the Honorable Governor Rick Perry (R-Texas) had a message for any and all game developers: Come to Texas.

After showing a video with the likes of Warren Spector (Junction Point), Starr Long (NCSoft), Gordon Walton and Rich Vogel (BioWare), Gov. Perry explained why the gaming industry is such a vital component of the Texas economy on a local, national and global level. "It's not enough to be the best in town anymore," said Perry.

With more direct foreign investment ($15 billion) than any other state in the country, some of which is directly tied to the gaming industry, Texas uses economic incentives, an established talent pool, and the lack of an income tax to attract both new and old studios to call Texas home. Perry also threw up some impressive gaming-related numbers, like how the gaming industry has created 2,800 new jobs in Texas between May of 2007 and May of 2008, and how those employees will put $177 million back into the Texas economy over a similar time span.

Perry used the $63,000 average salary of someone involved in game development as another reason to live in Texas. "On this salary, which many seem like pocket change to you Californians, people can afford to live in a house that isn't 90 minutes away from work." Perry also spoke to offering incentives to the gaming industry, like offering a studio $250,000 to help set up shop as long as they employ a minimum percentage of Texan residents and use in-state resources.

The one debatable fact Perry brought up was the average age of today's gamer, which he put at 35 years old. This may be a stretch, but even if the average is lower, the massage was the same regardless. He may have used 35 because of how his local economy is implementing games, which includes soldier rehabilitation, senior citizen activity, and medial applications. Pulse, a virtual program created by Texas A&M- Corpus Christi and Breakaway Games, allows surgeons and technicians to practice new techniques in the virtual world before using them on a real patient.

To end the keynote, which had few attendees, Perry had a distinct message to deliver to the game development industry, "The weather is hot, the barbecue is hot, the music is hot, and we want the gaming industry to be even hotter." While Perry was an odd choice for an E3 keynote speaker, he certainly made a strong case for Texas.

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