From The Gazette:

Nearly 13 years ago, a little-known French company called Ubisoft decided to open a video game development studio in Montreal, the result of a long charm offensive by the Quebec government who saw its legacy industries – textiles and forestry – slowly wither.

And from that seed sown on a tax credit gamble, a new industry flourished. Montreal is one of the top video game hubs in the world, mentioned alongside Los Angeles and London, and it still attracts new companies.

Today, the name Ubisoft is at once respected and a little hated, the sign of a mighty company that did a lot of things right.

It owes its success to what it found in Montreal: a creative, multi-cultural population, veteran expertise in digital animation, and an entrepreneurial class that made tools and educational programs to feed it.

This interesting history and the many pieces that compose its complex whole are nicely detailed in Guide de l’industrie jeux vidéo by Lien Multimédia (in French only).

Journalist Charles Prémont offers an almost complete look at the local industry, with interesting profiles of people and companies who keep it humming. I say almost complete because some key elements were left out, which I discuss later.

We also hear from industry observers who point out the challenges of the local scene. The always awesome Jason Della Rocca, for example, notes that Quebec’s firms are too optimized for console development, and may miss a major shift towards downloadable games.

Read the rest of the review here.

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Tags: book, guide, montreal, quebec, Review, ubisoft

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