Montreal

Montreal headlines

• Warner Montreal drops triple-A development for casual and mobile

  Warner’s Montreal Studio is changing direction, and will no long be making triple-A titles at the development branch, but will be creating social and mobile games instead.

• THQ plans four hits per year following Montreal announcement

  Fresh off announcing yet another dev coup – the signing of Assassin’s Creed boss Patrice Désilets – THQ executive vice president of core brands Danny Bilson has been discussing the company’s development plans around THQ Montreal.

• Ubisoft Montreal on Désilets’s move: It's a "shocker"

  Patrice Désilets’ decision to join THQ and create a studio in Montreal has seen an empathetic if surprised response from senior Ubisoft Montreal staff. Publicly, at least.

• THQ to open Montreal dev studio

  THQ’s announced plans to open a development studio in Montreal. The new venture will create 400 jobs in the next five years. Core games are to be the focus, with the outfit’s first title scheduled for 2013 ship. “Montreal’s outstanding pool of creative digital media talent and its highly regarded university system makes this the […]

• Funcom opens Montreal studio, The Secret World goes Canada

  Funcom has confirmed it’s to open a studio in Montreal. Dev boss Ragnar Tørnquist said last night that “a large and important part of the TSW [The Secret World – Ed] team will be located in Montreal. I’ll need to brush up on my French.” The studio will be headed up by Ole Schreiner, previously […]

• SCi to cut 25 percent of jobs, bins 14 games

  Oh dear. According to this, SCi has announced radical restructuring plans which are to include sizeable lay-offs and a move to Canada to take advantage of all those lovely tax breaks. “The company plans to operate at a maximum head count of 800, a reduction of 25 percent, while the board has decided to cancel […]

• British Columbia warns on Montreal tax incentives

  This Canadian newspaper report warns that the British Columbian games development industry is being damaged by (considerable) tax breaks offered in Quebec to companies that set up development studios there. Those in BC are worried that, unsurprisingly, all the talent’s upping sticks and setting up in Montreal. “We would love to see the BC government […]