Funcom has today announced the opening of a new studio in Canada.
Age of Conan developer Funcom has announced the opening of a new development Studio in Montreal. Funcom is the latest developer to branch into Canada following other developers such as EA and UbiSoft to take advantage of tax credits and support from the provincial government. The region is now proving a popular destination for talent in the videogames industry thanks to the governmental support in Quebec.
According to Funcom, key personnel will be moved to the region and tap into the talent that is now established in Montreal. Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas added:
“Montréal has established itself as one of the world’s most important locations for video game production, and we are looking forward to taking part in that success. In addition to strengthening our North American presence, the new studio will take advantage of the great incentive programs offered by the Québec region, incentives that makes Montréal one of the most cost effective locations in the world for developing MMO games. This will in turn allow us to better balance our costs, making it possible for us to continue to expand our investments into the MMO segment.”
Funcom Montreal’s new CEO Ole Schreiner commented on the incentives being offered by the Quebec government that are proving so attractive to development studios.
“It has been a pleasure for us to work with Investissement Québec in setting up our Montréal studio and we are very thankful for the strong support they have given us throughout this process. We are excited about the opportunity that Montréal represents to our company, not only because of the great incentives offered by Québec, but also the authorities’ strong commitment to training qualified video games personnel and building a video games cluster in Montreal and Quebec.”
The new Funcom studio will be involved with the two new upcoming titles from Funcom, the Age of Conan expansion pack Rise of the Godslayer as well as the new MMO The Secret World.
