Video game | Does Montreal still have the touch?

The darling of video games between 2009 and 2015, Montreal has been more discreet on the international scene in recent years. The golden age when the Assassin’s Creed and the Batmans developed here swept everything seems far away. But the number of studios and employees in Quebec studios has exploded since 2011. Down or in great shape, the video game?

Karim Benessaieh
The Press

“The ecosystem is no longer the same”

Barely a decade ago, “everything Montreal touched turned to gold,” recalls Stéphane d’Astous.

This industry veteran has held executive positions in the Montreal studios of Ubisoft, Eidos and Quantic Dream, among others. “You can name everything that Ubisoft did, it was hit after hit. We had Deus Ex at Eidos. We were used to the arrival of big publishers making the headlines, from Gameloft to EA via WB and THQ. »

These studios, supported by gigantic financial means, have kept their promises if we note the international prizes won. Until 2015, according to a compilation of The Press, Montreal has won 11 Game Awards, the equivalent of the Oscars for video games. Since ? Two, to which we could add that of Beenox, from Quebec, in 2019.

In interview with The Press Last summer, the director general of the Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec, Jean Jacques Hermans, admitted that the industry had taken due note of this observation. “I have the impression that we are more in a development cycle and that in the months and years to come, the games will be released and that we will regain our momentum. »

Questioned more recently for this file, he wanted to qualify this analysis. “The ecosystem is no longer the same. Since 2019, there has been a 33% increase in the number of studios in Quebec, and 35% of these new studios are outside of Montreal. We have about twenty large subsidiaries, but 85% of our studios are owned by Quebecers. It really broke down. »

Small studios in explosion

Indeed, the statistics clearly show good growth in the video game industry in Quebec, of which Montreal remains the driving force.

The global video game industry itself has changed, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot agreed, when The Press asked him to explain the more lukewarm critical reception of the later Assassin’s Creeds — who nevertheless found a record number of buyers.

In Quebec, the main change since 2011 is the explosion in the number of small studios with less than five employees. They were 9 out of 87 in 2011, or 10%, and are now 148 out of 291, more than one in two.

According to Pascal Nataf, co-founder of the Indie Asylum collective and president of the independent studio Affordance, this is a sign of a new, more mature and diversified ecosystem. “The industry is healthy, we can feel the excitement. It’s easy to attract people to Montreal. It’s cool to win more awards, but if it’s always international studios with Montreal artisans…”

Small studios, he agrees, are less well placed to develop big productions that will capture the imagination and win prizes. But the ground in Quebec is more fertile than ever to see the birth of future major studios, he believes.

“We have the best training in the world, we train the workforce and we have 25 years of experience […]. It takes more Quebec studios, Behavior [le plus important studio indépendant au Canada, avec un millier d’employés]. »

33 programs

The main obstacle, underlines his colleague Christopher Chancey, CEO of the independent studio ManaVoid, is the lack of private funding and the inability for small studios to promote their games.

“There are new games, but people don’t talk about them. We have people who sell millions of copies, but independent studios, we’re not good at talking about our successes. »

Another sign that times have changed since 1997, when Ubisoft had to train the majority of its new employees: today there are 33 training programs exclusively devoted to video games, specifies Brigitte Monneau, general manager of Synthèse Pôle Image Quebec, an organization set up by Quebec in 2018.

In training as in the studios, the challenge at the moment is to find experienced professionals, “seniors”, to pass on their knowledge. The more systematic implementation of internships could help alleviate the labor shortage, she believes. “It exists in other areas, health people are trained like that. »

This shortage, aggravated by the growing number of studios and the recruitment of Quebec craftsmen by studios outside Quebec, could it not lower the quality of productions here? “We talk about it, but categorically, I would say no, for the moment, answers Jean Jacques Hermans, from the Guild. But it is an issue that we keep an eye on. But Quebec’s ambitions are great: we have what it takes to become the world’s leading hub. »

Seven notable games and studios for Montreal

Assassin’s Creed

Undoubtedly the franchise that propelled Montreal to the top of the video game poles, Assassin’s Creed has sold more than 200 million copies since 2007. The concept: an assassin combines stealth and combat in established missions in different eras, from ancient Egypt to Paris in 1789 via the Caribbean in the 18^e century. This franchise alone has won 5 of the city’s 13 Game Awards.

far cry

It’s the other successful Ubisoft Montreal-driven franchise, with two international trophies in 2013 and 2014. Far Cry, now in its sixth mainline edition, is technically a handheld shooter. first person who starts every time in a fleshed out scenario. From the first opus, taking place on an island where atrocious genetic experiments take place, to the fifth, in which we follow a sect from Montana, the series would have sold some 30 million copies.

Lara Croft GO

This game is one of the three great successes of the Square Enix Montreal studio, with Hitman GO and Hitman Sniper. Released in 2014 and 2015, the two “GOs” offered sleek graphics, originally intended for mobile devices, and hypnotic game mechanics. It was basically a puzzle game where you had to advance one space at a time while avoiding traps. It took almost seven years for the Montreal studio to launch a new game, last March, Hitman Sniper: The Shadows.

Eidos-Montreal

Founded in 2007, the studio inherited from the start a cult franchise, Deus Ex, of which it delivered the third opus, Human Revolution, in 2011, then two others until 2016. We embody a half-robot agent in a cyberpunk atmosphere. In 2018, the Montreal studio concluded the reboot new adventures of Lara Croft with the magnificent Shadow of the Tomb Raider. However, we will have to wait until 2021 with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy to inherit a first Game Award, that of the best narration.

The Messenger

This title from the Sabotage studio is the only Game Award obtained, in 2018, by an independent Quebec studio. Other Quebec independent games have had a remarkable release, starting with Dead by Daylightfrom Behaviour, which attracts 50 million online gamers. Ancestors: The Humankind Odysseyfrom Patrice Désilets’ Panache studio, sold more than 1 million copies and Outlastof Red Barrel, reached 4 million.

Batman: Arkham City

The year 2011 was particularly prosperous for Montreal, with four Spike Video Game Awards, including three for Batman: Arkham City, developed by Rocksteady Studios and WB Montreal. We discover a city founded by the mayor of Gotham where criminals are free, provided they do not escape. Montreal was, moreover, the conductor of the orchestra Batman: Arkham Origins. Discreet since 2013, WB Montreal will be back in force on October 21 with a highly anticipated new game from this franchise, Gotham Knights.

Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell undeniably gave rise to the brand new Ubisoft studio in Montreal from 2002. Specializing at first in children’s games from the Playmobil license, Ubisoft Montreal inaugurates with Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell a new franchise based on the universe of the American author, alternating between infiltration and combat and which will give seven games sold at 32 million copies. Tom Clancy’s universe will be taken up for Rainbow Sixon which Ubisoft has relied heavily since 2015.