A resident of Trois-Rivières who has spent most of his professional life in Ubisoft’s Montreal studio has just been offered a mission of a whole new level: taking control of a new studio established in Barcelona belonging to a major Korean publisher, with the objective of eventually directing all of its European and possibly North American activities.
A headhunter who had been keeping an eye on Sébastien Ebacher for some time found him a mandate to match his ambitions, to say the least. Recently employed by Ubisoft in Paris, he must now find an apartment in the Catalan capital, ideally not too far from the Rambla, its most famous commercial avenue.
This is all too rare proof that the expertise of Quebec video game professionals is beginning to be recognized well beyond the borders of Canada and even North America. The province’s video game industry is more accustomed to welcoming leaders who come from outside to lead the troops than the reverse. Quebec exports a lot of video games and technology, but it exports very little of its professionals.
The founder and sole owner of Smilegate is Kwon Hyuk-bin. He owns the fifth fortune of Korea. He is a billionaire. He has literally accomplished what many people in video games dream of doing: achieve instant popular and financial success from his first game. Sebastien Ebacher.
Conquering the West
“When I met Mr. Kwon a little before Christmas, he seemed a little lost”, says the new leader met by The duty in Barcelona. “He said his eyes hurt because he had just spent too much time in front of his computer programming a new game. This man has nothing more to prove, but he is still programming himself!” And there, he wants to give me the opportunity to create a new game and through that, as he told me, to find out what message I would like to convey to the rest of the world. It is quite a privilege to be given the means to achieve such a goal. »
It’s not every day that we are offered the keys to a machine like a video game studio ready to embark on a brand new project… “It really gave me back the taste for creating games, it’s something that I had kind of forgotten over the years. I really don’t feel like disappointing. I’m really going to put all my energy into it, because it goes beyond work. This is perhaps the only time I will have such a chance to start a project of this magnitude. »
Sébastien Ebacher does not yet know exactly what this famous project will look like. But he knows one thing: it will not be a simple game. It will be what is called in the jargon a franchise. A title. An intellectual property that will be based on an environment that can be used again later, which is more likely to attract players.
It’s an approach that in itself is new to Smilegate, which doesn’t have a particularly extensive catalog of games and owes its success mainly to a single game. Called CrossFireit’s a first-person shooter that enjoyed immediate popularity in Asia, but didn’t really catch on in Europe or North America.
It really gave me back the taste for creating games, it’s something that I had somewhat forgotten over the years. I really don’t feel like disappointing. I’m really going to put all my energy into it, because it goes beyond work.
Smilegate is still starting to make a name for itself on these two continents thanks to a brand new game called Lost Ark and which has just appeared with some success on the Steam PC gaming platform, from the American company Valve Systems.
A game in five stages
Smilegate’s management was seduced by the vision of game production submitted to it by Sébastien Ebacher during their first meetings. It’s also a vision he was already planning to present later this month at a major industry conference in San Francisco, the Game Developers Conference.
According to him, it is possible to stimulate the commitment of all employees at each stage of production by focusing on five specific emotions, each associated with a stage in the production of a game. For example, the first stage, which is to establish the concept, is that of excitement. “When everyone is excited about the project, it’s easier to get full commitment,” he says. The fifth step, at the end, is to present the game to the public, even if it is a not quite completed beta version. This is the stage of pride. “If the team is proud, we can present the game to testers, even if it is not finished yet. »
As executive producer, the new Quebec boss of the Barcelona studio of Smilegate will have the opportunity to put his theory to the test. Its team is currently made up of about thirty people, but the studio’s website has many job offers at all levels. Will he be tempted to move ex-colleagues from Montreal or Quebec?
Perhaps, but nothing is less certain… “The video game sector in Montreal is quite unique. We have many, many studios that constantly need a lot of resources. And people who have been in the business long enough are mostly in fairly comfortable situations that do not encourage them to look elsewhere. »
Sébastien Ebacher will therefore benefit from polishing up his Spanish… and learning Korean.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.