Funcom Establishes New Development Studio in Montréal

Sep 01 2009

Funcom Establishes New Development Studio in Montréal

Published by Chris Comeau at 2:14 pm under News

Funcom is pleased to announce the establishment of a new development studio in Montréal, Canada, where it will build a strong and competent development team that will work on several games in the Funcom portfolio. Besides tapping into the excellent talent pool available in the region, Funcom will also move a certain number of key personnel over to the new studio.

"Montréal has established itself as one of the world`s most important locations for video game production, and we are looking forward to taking part in that success," says Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. "In addition to strengthening our North American presence, the new studio will take advantage of the great incentive programs offered by the Québec region, incentives that makes Montréal one of the most cost effective locations in the world for developing MMO games. This will in turn allow us to better balance our costs, making it possible for us to continue to expand our investments into the MMO segment."

Funcom is one of the most multi-cultural game developers in the business, with over 320 employees from all corners of the world employed at the company`s offices in Norway, the US, China, and Switzerland. The company is responsible for the best-selling MMO `Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures` that shipped over 1.2 million copies to retail in 2008, as well as the pioneering sci-fi MMO `Anarchy Online`. The company has developed more than 20 titles since its founding in 1993; including the critically acclaimed `The Longest Journey` and `Dreamfall`adventure games. Funcom is currently working on the expansion pack for `Age of Conan` called `Rise of the Godslayer` as well as its new MMO `The Secret World`. Developers at the Montréal studio will play an important role in the development of both of these games.

Update: Les Affaires has a short interview with CEO Trond Arne Aas.