From gamasutra.com:

During the Montreal International Game Summit, Far Cry 2 technical director Dominic Guay painted procedural content generation as an increasingly important game development technique, not just to control costs as games get bigger and bigger, but also to retain the crucial ability to make changes throughout the production process.

“This talk is not about Far Cry 2 the game,” began Guay, who populated his talk with development examples from Far Cry 2’s creation rather than descriptions of the end-user goals of the game’s features.

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From gamasutra.com:

As the opening keynote for the fifth Montreal International Game Summit, celebrated game designer Warren Spector (Deus Ex) had to live up to his own legacy.
Origin and Looking Glass veteran Spector, whose Junction Point development studio is now owned by Disney, recalled a pessimistic talk he gave at the summit in 2005, “Gaming in the Margins,” where he discussed industry challenges, from new hardware to increased media scrutiny — and turned out to be “pretty much wrong about everything.”

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From gamedaily.com:

The Vancouver Film School today announced details for its 2009 Game Design Expo. The first day of the event will be keynoted by Clint Hocking, Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal, with speakers from Epic, Insomniac, Radical, and Relic participating as well. There will also be an industry panel with representatives from EA, Obsidian, Propaganda, and more.

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From gamasutra.com:

Study: Quebec Video Game Industry Sixth Largest In The World? The Quebec game industry employs over 6,200 people — that’s according to a study from Canadian-based consulting firm SECOR-Taktik on behalf of industry network and Montreal International Game Summit organizer Alliance Numérique.

Of those, some 2,000 are spread across technology providers, creative services, production, and support services.

With approximately 4,400 developers, the Canadian province ranks sixth compared to other regions employing video game developers around the world, according to survey results.

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From gamasutra.com:

Electronic Arts did, in fact, verify that it received a correspondence from competitors in Montreal similar to the one obtained by Gamasutra. But the company declined to provide any further details, neither to show us the correspondence nor to confirm the company or individual that sent it.

When approached by Gamasutra for comment on this story, EA Montreal vice president and general manager Alain Tascan called the letters “troubling.”

“Colluding with competitors to restrict salaries in Montreal appears unethical and definitely contradicts EA’s core values,” Tascan said. “EA is currently reviewing records to affirm our understanding that no representatives from our company participated in the meetings referenced in these letters, and that no one from EA colluded with competitors to restrict employee salaries.”

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From gamereactor.eu (via kotaku.com):

 

The first screens and info from Deus Ex 3 have been released. It is under development at the new Eidos Montreal studios.

The game takes place in the year 2027 and the main character Adam Jensen is a security guard at a biotech company called Sarif. One day the offices are stormed by men in black and almost everyone is killed… almost. Jensen survives and makes it his business to find out what has been going on.

We will have to wait until 2010 before Deus Ex 3 is released. It will be interesting to see if it can live up to the original after the sequel failed to set the world on fire.

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From marketwatch.com:

Today Ubisoft announces that Shaun White Snowboarding for the Xbox 360(R) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system, the Wii(TM) home video game system from Nintendo, the Nintendo DS(TM) system and PSP(R) (PlayStation(R) Portable) system, and the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system is available in stores now.

“I’m really excited about the release of Shaun White Snowboarding,” said action sports superstar and Olympic gold medalist Shaun White. “Ubisoft Montreal and I have worked together for over two years to create something I would be proud to put my name on. I feel like we’ve captured the true essence of the action sports lifestyle and brought it to players around the world. I’m hoping that those who have never been to the snow will want to try snowboarding after they play, and those who do ride will be proud of what we’ve done.”

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From montrealmirror.com:

Not every video game is blessed with a development staff of hundreds, a multi-million-dollar budget and a crack marketing team. For all those tiny games created without staggering sales numbers or worldwide critical acclaim in mind, Montreal experimental game collective Kokoromi has created GAMMA, a one-night-only party giving the little guys and girls a chance for their five-minute masterpieces to shine.

In the three years Kokoromi has held the annual showcase, every edition has forced eager independent game developers to create a five-minute, easy-to-learn game based on a chosen theme. The six titles chosen this year made stereoscopy—the red/blue 3D effect featuring those cumbersome paper glasses—integral to the gameplay.

GAMMA 3D AT S.A.T. (1195 ST-LAURENT)
ON WEDNESDAY, NOV. 19, 7–9 P.M.
FOR MIGS ATTENDEES ONLY, OPEN
TO PUBLIC AFTER 9 P.M., $5.
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO
DOWNLOAD THE GAMES AFTER
NOV. 19, VISIT KOKOROMI.ORG

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From nextgenplayer.com:

Alliance Numerique have announced some exciting news for gamers - this year’s Montreal Game Summit will be open for the public for the first time. Enthusiastic gamers will have the chance to experience the grand spectacle of the exhibition zone where companies such as Eidos, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Ubisoft will have booths set-up.

Gamers are also invited to attend the closing conference speech by Jonathan Blow - designer of the critically acclaimed Xbox Live game Braid. There is also an open invitation for gamers to come to the Closing Party at the Society of Arts and Technology located near the summit.

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From gamedaily.com:

The forecast for Ubisoft just keeps on getting brighter, and the company expects big things from the game based upon James Cameron’s Avatar.

Yves Guillemot is expecting large returns for the video game industry in 2009, he told investors at the BMO Capital Markets conference, according to Gamasutra. The Ubisoft President and CEO expects the console installed base in the U.S. and Europe to have expanded by 121 percent to 70 million units and handheld consoles will grow 55 percent to 90 million units by the end of 2008.

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