THQ Montreal Keeping Core, Aiming For 400 Staffers In 5 Years

Commencing a day of festivities revolving around the official opening of THQ Montreal, a press conference was held this morning to discuss the goals and aspirations for the new development center. The conference followed news that Assassin’s Creed creative director Patrice Désilets has been brought on to helm a new development team at the studio, a major win for THQ’s talent pool.

Montreal is becoming a huge hub for game development and education, mostly thanks to incentives provided by the government. According to Dave Gatchel, General Manager of THQ Montreal, the studio plans to take advantage of these incentives, aiming to employ more than 400 designers, engineers, artists, and animators over the next five years.

After playing a sizzle reel from THQ’s core lineup to illustrate the studio’s focus, the stage was handed over to THQ Executive Vice President of Core Games Danny Bilson, who spoke further on THQ’s policy of game design.

Bilson made clear that THQ is aware of the great strides being made in casual and social games, but reiterated that THQ Montreal will focus on delivering blockbuster experiences and putting more, higher quality content on the screen. Bilson feels that there isn’t room for average games anymore, and that only the highest quality products will succeed in the marketplace. One team working on such a project has already been announced with Désilets at the helm, and a second working on another AAA title will debut next year.

During a Q&A session, Bilson explained that THQ Montreal won’t focus on developing a portfolio of games – meaning genre won’t dictate their lineup. Instead, they plan to continue greenlighting projects based on originality and innovation, even if that means having three shooters or platforming games in development at one time. He feels that this practice is aided by THQ’s policy of internal idea generation, running with concepts that come from anyone and anywhere as long as the core team responds and is inspired.

According to Bilson, THQ will continue to court talent and augment their studio staff by giving game developers what they want most – the opportunity to make great games. More than money, sleep, or food, Bilson believes that developers want the time and tools to make the best product possible. He recalled personal experiences that involved teams killing themselves to finish a game that everyone knew wouldn’t ship to satisfactory standards, and vows not to let this happen at THQ Montreal.

THQ Montreal seems to have a firm grasp of their goals for the new studio, and it will be interesting to watch these practices implemented in future products.