Eidos Montreal poised to double in size

Pending approval of a £1.2M grant, Eidos Montreal could expand from 350 to 700 employees, making it one of the largest Canadian game development studios.

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Fresh from the launch of the critical success of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, it appears that developer Eidos Montreal might be doubling in size. Publisher Square Enix is apparently making a push to greatly expand the Canadian studio, pending the approval of a £1.2M grant ($2M CAD), by local government officials. Though the deal has not yet been finalized, the funding would be used to help facilitate the rapid increase in head-count.

French-Canadian publication La Presse Affaires (via Develop) has noted that should the funding be approved, Eidos Montreal could quickly expand from its current staff of 350 to around 700 employees. According to the report, Square Enix has reached a "tentative agreement" for the grant with funding group Investissement Quebec.

The Quebec government currently offers 40% tax subsidies for production costs, making it an attractive location for many studios. It's reported that should the grant be approved, Eidos Montreal will add 100 jobs by the end of 2012. Two-hundred fifty more jobs would then be added by 2015, which also means that Eidos Montreal would need to find a bigger office, or split the studio between two locations.

If Eidos Montreal expands, it will join a number of high-profile "mega" studios in the area, most notably Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed team.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    September 1, 2011 3:30 PM

    Jeff Mattas posted a new article, Eidos Montreal poised to double in size.

    Pending approval of a £1.2M grant, Eidos Montreal could expand from 350 to 700 employees, making it one of the largest Canadian game development studios.

    • reply
      September 1, 2011 3:48 PM

      [deleted]

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      September 1, 2011 4:01 PM

      Congratulations, Eidos Montreal. You've earned it.

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      September 1, 2011 4:52 PM

      Fuck yeah! You deserve it Eidos Montreal!

      How many game studios do we have up here anyway?

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      September 1, 2011 5:01 PM

      GO CANADA!!

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      September 1, 2011 5:05 PM

      DE:HR was quality work and seems to be selling well. A studio with a culture that delivered a big hit + generous tax local breaks = more investment (i.e. expansion).

      Looks like a win win for the studio and for the state.

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        September 1, 2011 5:45 PM

        State?

        What the fuck, Dr_Cube, we've got fucking provinces here.

        Goddamn Americans saying our provinces are fucking states. Fucking nerve.

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      September 1, 2011 5:08 PM

      Maybe they'll shift people over to Thief 4 now. Hard to see how they'll follow up on 3, though. Unless they once again decide to make a prequel (that is, before The Dark Project) that deals with The Keepers and all of that.

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      September 1, 2011 5:16 PM

      Go CDN Devs!

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      September 1, 2011 5:19 PM

      Too bad I heard that Deus Ex: HR was a terrible, horrible game from some guy on metacritic.

      http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/deus-ex-human-revolution/user-reviews?user_review_id=1728951#user_review_1728951

      seriously, don't read that if you don't want your brain to hurt

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        September 1, 2011 5:21 PM

        [deleted]

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        September 2, 2011 4:34 AM

        Hes just another pissed of bioware employee who is miffed dragon age 2 sucked so bad.

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          September 2, 2011 4:36 AM

          Actually, no, I rescind that, this guy is just angry: http://www.metacritic.com/user/syrik?page=0 His average score for videogames is 3.

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            September 2, 2011 4:40 AM

            Yeah, it was pretty funny to read. Basically the opposite of what I feel about the game in almost every respect.

            It baffles the mind how people can call the game "linear." I mean, yeah, you roughly go from point A to point B, but they did a great job in giving you multiple ways to get there.

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            September 2, 2011 6:36 AM

            [deleted]

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      September 1, 2011 5:39 PM

      I don't really understand why the provincial government is offering this grant.

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        September 2, 2011 3:04 AM

        job creation, attract more devs, etc

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        September 2, 2011 3:27 AM

        Government grants for companies aren't rare. Film productions can frequently get several million from various governments, depending on shooting circumstances.

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        September 2, 2011 6:09 AM

        Ran out of magic from this year's allotment of "magic of the marketplace" so they need welfare a hand from taxpayers to help.

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          September 2, 2011 8:53 AM

          Yeah, the dirty not-so-secret is that a lot of businesses take subsidies and breaks in exchange for setting up in a particular region. It's the perfect retort to people who attack "government handouts" when what they really mean is "welfare."

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      September 2, 2011 3:39 AM

      Is the British government providing the grant?

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        September 2, 2011 6:50 AM

        Think most of the details were copy/pasted from Develop, an English site

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      September 2, 2011 3:58 AM

      Good stuff!

      Hopefully that will mean we'll see more good games from them more frequently.

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      September 2, 2011 5:47 AM

      Why are you reporting this in British pounds if it's local Quebec governments?

      You've pretty much just copied the develop-online.net article.

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      September 2, 2011 6:15 AM

      [deleted]

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        September 2, 2011 6:23 AM

        You can speak no french whatsoever, and you'll rarely have any trouble.

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        September 2, 2011 6:31 AM

        [deleted]

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        September 2, 2011 9:23 AM

        I've been living here for quite some years now and still speak hardly any French. Some people are obvisously dicks about it and refuse to speak English even though they can (bus drivers, corner stores, delivery people etc.) but its not like you need to have a conversation with them =P

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      September 2, 2011 6:44 AM

      MORE DEUS EX

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      September 2, 2011 7:17 AM

      time to start remaking Origin games too

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