Officially a City of the Future, as decreed by the international Innovation Cities Index, Montréal has a renowned tech industry in everything from AI to neuroscience and clean tech. And, not least, gaming, for which the city was ranked 5th largest hub in the world. Because as hard as we work, we never forget to play.
It all started in 1997
Before Ubisoft and Autodesk became influential players in Montréal’s industry, locally owned Behaviour Interactive and Kaydara anchored the local development scene. But 1997 is when Ubisoft established its headquarters in Montréal.
The makers of Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Persian Prince and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege were attracted to the city for its creative wealth and specialized talent – and soon they were joined by EA, Eldos, Gameloft and WB Games. Today, Montréal counts over 200 video game studios, as well as a complete ecosystem with key players in tool development and service providers such as audio services, quality assurance, publishing and localization.
Deep talent pool
One of the reasons that Montréal is a gaming capital is because of the post-secondary institutions that provide an immense amount of fresh talent annually. The Greater Montréal region boasts thousands of college students enrolled in technical programs related to gaming, animation, and visual effects.
The city is currently home to 19,000 workers with skills in video game development, ranging from VR/AR to gamification not only in actual video games, but in industries such as health care and education.
Attractive incentives
With operation costs estimated at 28% lower than the 20 largest metropolitan areas in Canada and the U.S., Montréal business makes dollars and cents. The province of Québec also provides a video game tax credit of up to 37.5% of qualifying labour expenditures. And that’s only one of the incentives: there are also programs, grants and interest-free loans that make establishing a video game business in Montréal extra interesting.
Add those draws to the fact that Montréal offers a great quality of life, student environment, affordable living conditions and creative fervour, and it becomes clear: the game has just begun.
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