[astrange]

There's also video game industry, which produces software, and traditionally the only kind of software normal people enjoy using to the point of getting emulators for.

It's a little more distributed: http://www.gameindustrycareerguide.com/best-cities-for-video...

I'm surprised SF comes up so much still. Isn't the rent an existential threat to the industry?

[thehardsphere]

The rent is a minor expense if it gets you access to a competitive labor market and venture capital you otherwise would not have.

Plus, I imagine that many of those studios may have gotten their start before things like Unity and Steam made it possible for anybody with enough time on their hands to make and publish their own games very inexpensively.