Bethesda Open New Development Studio In Montreal
What are you doing, pal?
Fallout and Elder Scrolls folks Bethesda have opened a second development studio up north in Canada's fair city of Montreal, they've announced. While their parent company ZeniMax own a smattering of other studios, from Arkane to id Software, this new joint is specifically an arm of Bethesda Game Studios. They don't say much of interest about the studio or what it'll do, so hey, I'll repeat my plea to Ubisoft: let these new people go wild with those big open worlds and other assets you already have sitting on hard drives to make weird new things with them. (They won't, I'm sure. Boo!)
Bethesda say the new studio is to "expand its development capabilities in console, PC, and mobile gaming", which is vague. A general helper studio, perhaps? They say it's opened with a team of "more than 40", and are hiring too.
"It's exciting to think about the new games we'll be building together," says executive producer Todd Howard in the announcement. Is it? Why? What are you up to? What are you thinking about? You can tell me, Todd. I can keep a secret, Todd. C'mon, Todd. C'mooon! Todd. Todd! TODD. Seriously man, come the 'heck' on. TODD! Sheesh.
Anyway, why Montreal? Well, I hear it's a pretty nice city, but I suspect it's also something to do with the province of Quebec offering tasty tax credits. The government cut these breaks last year, but they're still added incentive. Ubisoft, Eidos, BioWare, Warner Bros., and plenty other gamefolks are already set up in Montreal. It's easier to build a new studio in a place with potential employees already around too.
Anyway, I guess at some point we'll hear what they'll actually do?