Free drinks and nibbles will be served while you watch great presentations from Eidos Montreal and the creator of the famous Iron Baby. Later on the Siggraph Electronic theater will also be screened.

Don’t wait, register today and bring your peers for a fun night in the industry!

Date and time:
December 2, 2010
Registration: 5 – 6 p.m. EST
Event: 6 – 8 p.m. EST
Electronic Theatre: 8 – 10 p.m. EST (presented by the Montreal ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter)

Location:
Autodesk, Montreal
10 rue Duke, Montreal, QC, H3C 2L7 Map

A new 3ds max user group in Montreal has been created, join us via LinkedIn.

Here is the event page on LinkedIn and registration page.

There is also a Facebook group that you can join.

See you there !

Mount Royal Game Society, Dirty Rectangles and Babycastles present
THE PRINCE OF ARCADE
indie games showcase & party.

 

> look_
You see a joyovial congregather of scintilliant video-games, resplendiferous in their arcoats.

> get beverage_
You take up a fluottle of alcoluminous beverage and slake a thirst accrued over two long days of intense pensiveness about video-games.

> listen music_
This rocks!

> play games_
The viewportal brings you to another world. You have a transcendental experience and emerge a changed person.

 

> get info_

Tuesday, November 9, 2010, 8pm
at Eastern Bloc, 7240 rue Clark, Montreal, QC
$10 ($5 with a MIGS conference pass)

More announcements about this coming soon. Stay tuned!

You may recall that last December publisher THQ announced its intention to leverage the fantastic video game development pool in Montreal with a brand-new studio (and the help of the Canadian government). Today, THQ sent word that it’s finally opened the Montreal studio.

Moreover, the company proudly informed us that they’ve signed notable games designer Patrice Désilets, who’s known for serving as the creative director on top Ubisoft games like the Assassin’s Creed franchise and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. “THQ has the exclusive option to have Désilets work from THQ’s new Montreal studio beginning summer 2011. When he joins the studio, Désilets will be charged with the hiring of a new team that will develop new intellectual properties for THQ,” THQ stated.

The man behind Assassin’s, now spearheading original IP at THQ.

“We expect calendar 2011 to be a watershed year for THQ, and adding developers like Patrice helps ensure our focus on new IP and great games is charted by leading industry artists,” said Danny Bilson, THQ Executive Vice President, Core Games, adding, “Simply put, we can’t wait for Patrice to join THQ. Patrice brings a passion for games rich with action-packed sequences, gripping characters and cinematic flair, and we’re all looking forward to having him and his newly formed team develop an all new franchise with us.”

Read the full article on IndustryGamers…

Update: Le créateur d’Assassin’s Creed écrit à ses fans, sur RueFrontenac.com:

Je vais maintenant retourner à mon hibernation créative et apprécier le temps de qualité que je passe avec ma famille… J’ai vraiment hâte de vous revoir tous l’année prochaine à l’E3 2011, où j’en dirai davantage sur mon avenir. D’ici là, j’espère que vous achèterez tous AC: Brotherhood et Homefront. En tout cas, c’est ce que moi je ferai de mon côté.

Update: On a related note: THQ Renews SpongeBob SquarePants Deal, via Gamasutra.

Update: Ubisoft Reacts to Assassin’s Creed Lead Departure, via IndustryGamers:

Senior international brand manager Eric Gallant added, “Patrice was a key member of a team and a good friend and his decision to leave is unfortunate for us but we’re happy for him. For Brotherhood it doesn’t really have a big impact since the creative decisions were made way before this, these decisions are always coming out from different conversations with different people… It’s not only one person that drives the entire ship, it’s a team – and the core team remains the same on Brotherhood. Some core members will always stay on Assassin’s Creed and we’re adding new people as we get bigger.”

Longueuil’s D-BOX Technologies Inc., a developer of high-tech motion systems, said Monday it has made a breakthrough into the aerospace sector.

It announced an initial agreement with California-based Precision Flight Controls, a leading maker of flight devices for pilots and educators.

PFC will offer D-BOX’s motion technology as an option for all new cockpit sales as well as a retrofit, giving PFC’s customer base of colleges, universities, flight schools, government units and also individuals a highly accurate form of flight simulation.

“The D-BOX precision-engineered motion system greatly enhances our flight simulation environment and now we can offer seat-of-the-pants motion cueing only found in much higher-level flight training devices,” said PFC’s CEO Mike Altman. “Pilots will experience the feel of roll, pitch, yaw, turbulence and stall.”

D-BOX’s products have up till now been sold mainly to the entertainment industry, with motion effects specifically programmed for each film, TV program and video game.

Le studio montréalais de jeux vidéo Ludia vient d’être acheté par le plus important producteur d’émissions de télé du monde, l’entreprise britannique FremantleMedia, qui est derrière les succès d’American Idol et de The Price Is Right. La transaction sera annoncée officiellement ce matin.

L’un des secrets les mieux gardés de l’industrie montréalaise du jeu vidéo, Ludia produit des jeux inspirés d’émissions de télé. La PME installée dans le Vieux-Montréal possède les droits d’adaptation du livre Où est Charlie et de 13 émissions de télé, dont The Price Is Right. Ses jeux sont particulièrement populaires sur la console Wii de Nintendo, sur Facebook et sur les téléphones portables intelligents.

Le cofondateur et président de Ludia, Alexandre Thabet, soutient que la transaction est de bon augure pour l’avenir de l’entreprise. Il n’y aura pas de mises à pied parmi les 115 employés – bien au contraire. «Il n’y aura pas de différence, hormis que nous intégrons un groupe qui a plus de moyens. Nous ne sommes pas intégrés à une entreprise de jeux vidéo qui va nous dicter ce que nous allons faire. FremantleMedia n’a jamais fait de jeux vidéo et s’attend à ce qu’on prenne le leadership», dit Alexandre Thabet en entrevue à La Presse Affaires.

Le grand patron de Ludia, entreprise fondée en 2007, connaît les risques d’être avalé par un plus gros poisson. En 2003, Alexandre Thabet a vendu une autre entreprise de jeux vidéo (Hexacto) à un studio concurrent. «L’expérience a été bonne, mais on est quand même devenu un studio de conception pour une autre entreprise», dit-il. [...]

Lisez le reste de l’article sur sur La Presse…

You know how it goes — they always offer the first fix for free. And then, when you need more, you have to pay up. A2M and 505 Games have employed this classic strategy for the release of a new piece of Naughty Bear DLC, dubbed “Chapter 9.” The add-on is out today on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, but unlike the previous DLC release, it’ll cost you: 400 Microsoft Points or $4.99, respectively.

Chapter 9 introduces the Island of Perfection, replete with “exclusive hidden treasures, deadly weapons and brutal buccaneers,” and two boss bears for the cuddly curmudgeon to conquer: Admiral Giggles and The Great Bear Beard. The DLC also includes four new challenges. For avast look (see what we did there?) check out the trailer past the break and the images below.

Bonne nouvelle pour les 350 employés de l’entreprise: aucune mise à pied n’est prévue. La structure décisionnelle prendra toutefois une nouvelle forme plus décentralisée, autour de nouveaux projets qui seront divisés entre les différents studios de la bannière Visceral. EA Mobile, l’autre principale division d’Electronic Arts à Montréal, avec ses 400 employés, n’est pas affectée par cette restructuration.

Quant à Alain Tascan, un des poids lourds de l’industrie montréalaise du jeu vidéo, personne ne devrait être nommé à court terme pour le remplacer. Visceral Games, anciennement les studios Redwood Shores, est présentement dirigé par Nick Earl, de Californie.

Drôle de coïncidence tout de même, M. Tascan, à la tête d’EA Montréal depuis 7 ans, organise un dîner ce midi avec des grands patrons des autres studios montréalais afin de leur présenter officiellement Yanick Roy, le nouveau patron de BioWare Montréal – une autre division d’EA.

«Nos studios montréalais vont quand même conserver leur propriété intellectuelle et continuer de concevoir et de développer de nouveaux titres, conjointement avec les autres studios», assure M. Tascan, désireux de minimiser l’impact négatif de cette nouvelle. [...]

Lisez l’article complet sur La Presse…

Event Details

When: Wednesday, October 27th – 7pm doors open, 7:30-9pm roundtables, then bar…
What: IGDA-Montreal Roundtable Discussions Night
Where: Holiday Inn Midtown “La Plaza” – 420 Sherbrooke West
Why: Four in-depth roundtable discussions
Who: All game developers, and those related to the game industry
Entry: free, but must RSVP – priority for IGDA members (see below)

 

RSVP

Everyone must RSVP via montreal@igda.org and indicate which topic they want to participate in. Each topic has limited seating of 20. Priority access will be given to IGDA members in good standing. If you are not a member, you can join online before RSVPing.

 

Roundtables

Doors will open and attendess can mingle starting at 7pm. Doors will close and discussions will officially start at 7:30pm and will run until 9pm. After the discussions, everyone is welcome to the hotel lobby bar to unwind. The roundtable topics are as follows:

More details on on IGDA Montreal…