Gaming is a global force, with the industry reaching media consumers in virtually every major economy in the world. In Canada, where thousands of professionals have found their way to employment in gaming, Quebec has become one of the industry’s major hubs. Much of the province’s tech presence is focused in Montreal, and the following gaming companies represent some of the city’s top studios.
Top Gaming Companies in Montreal
- 2K
- EA
- Epic Games
- Bethesda
- Gameloft
- Mino Games
- Spearhead Games
Gaming Companies in Montreal to Know
Cloud Chamber is a wholly owned development studio of 2K Interactive. With offices in Los Angeles and Quebec, the studio produces the famed BioShock series, which has three games so far, and a fourth in production. Cloud Chamber typically hires artists, animators and audio specialists.
Mino Games makes free-to-play mobile games, like Mino Monsters, which has been downloaded over 13 million times. Emphasizing character-driven games that build community, the company is well funded by influential investors in the gaming industry and has a portfolio of games that have been downloaded by players around the world.
Gameloft is a French game development company with over 60 mobile games. The studio focuses on securing brand partnerships and licenses to develop playable experiences using outside intellectual property. Gameloft’s Montreal studio specializes in developing PC-based titles.
Kitfox Games is an indie gaming company that focuses on worldbuilding in game universes. Its narrative design strategy uses procedural generation techniques to build ever-evolving worlds and advancing stories into each game. Its offerings include Boyfriend Dungeon, Six Ages and Dwarf Fortress.
2K is an international video game publisher known for releasing titles across genres like sports, action, racing and horror. Although 2K is headquartered in California, its Cloud Chamber Studio has a presence in Montreal. The studio is working on the immersive first-person shooter series BioShock.
Kabam makes interactive massive multiplayer social games for mobile devices, like Marvel Contest of Champions and Transformers: Forged to Fight. The company has partnered with globally-recognized brands like Hasbro and Disney to produce titles that have seen millions of downloads.
KO_OP is a worker-run gaming company that develops and publishes its titles independently. Since launching in 2014, the studio has released serval PC-based games, including Lara Croft GO, a puzzle-adventure addition to the Tomb Raider series.
Bethesda, founded in 2001, operates an office in Montreal and produces series like Elder Scrolls, Fall Out and Starfield. It has received several accolades, including four Game of the Year awards. Bethesda also recently ventured into TV entertainment when it created a live-action Fallout series with Amazon Studios.
Behaviour Interactive, the game developer best known for making Dead by Daylight, has since put out a long list of titles for a variety of gaming platforms. It’s been around since the early 1990s and has more than 1,300 global employees. The company says it was one of the first in the industry to get rid of the practice of “crunch time,” which had developers work long overtime hours in advance of releases.
Compulsion Games is a Canadian development studio currently working on its third title release. The independent studio rose to prominence with the launch of its narrative games Contrast and We Happy Few. Later, Compulsion Games became part of Xbox Game Studios.
Beenox is a subsidiary of Activision, a large video game publisher. Headquartered in Quebec City, it recently christened a 100-person office in Montreal, which serves as a creative hub. Beenox has contributed to the development of several titles in the Call of Duty lineup.
Ubisoft is one of the largest gaming companies in the world, with over 40 global offices, including one in Montreal. The studio has produced and released several popular gaming franchises, including Far Cry and Rainbow Six. Typical roles at Ubisoft include developers, game designers and security researchers.
EA is known for producing sports games and several other titles, including Apex Legends, a free-to-play multiplayer game. The company’s Montreal location specializes in playtesting new titles to ensure they provide positive player experiences.
DON’T NOD is an independent gaming studio that creates titles for console, PC, and mobile devices. The studio focuses on creating visually stunning narrative-based games, which often take longer to produce than other game styles. DON’T NOD is headquartered in Paris but opened an office in Montreal in 2020.
Budge Studios develops children’s video games using licensed IP, including Bluey and Paw Patrol. Its games are available on mobile devices and aim to provide creative and interactive experiences for children. Budge Studios’s apps have over two billion downloads.
Artifact 5 is an independent game development studio that incorporates 3D rendering and virtual reality in its work. The studio works with various clients to create custom experiences and has also worked on its own titles, like Lucky Me, an upcoming puzzle shooter game.
Epic Games is the studio behind Fortnite, one of the most popular multiplayer video games. In addition to its popular titles, Epic is also the developer of the widely used Unreal engine, which helped popularize first-person shooter games. The company also operates a popular marketplace that enables PC gamers to purchase and download various titles onto their systems.
Eidos is a locally founded game development company. The studio develops the Tomb Raider series and multiple projects for Marvel. Eidos is one of the few studios that develops proprietary gaming engines, which it uses for several of its titles.
Spearhead Games is an independent gaming studio that specializes in creating narrative and gameplay experiences designed to captivate players. Spearhead has been around since 2012, publishing innovative titles such as the cooperative action puzzle game Tiny Brains and the RPG murder mystery Omensight.
Warner Bros. Discovery is one of the largest global entertainment and media companies that owns and operates brands like CNN and HBO. It also runs movie, television and game development studios, the latter of which includes Avalanche Software. The company distributes its services to more than 200 countries.
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