Eidos Montréal

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Eidos Montréal

logo
legal form Subsidiary of Square Enix
founding February 15, 2007
Seat Montreal , Quebec , CanadaCanadaCanada 
management David Anfossi (General Manager)
Number of employees 450
Branch Software development
Website www.eidosmontreal.com

Eidos Montréal is a Canadian computer game development studio . Founded as a subsidiary of the British game publisher Eidos Interactive , it has been part of the Japanese game publisher Square Enix since the parent company was taken over . Among other things, the studio is responsible for the further development of the Deus Ex and Thief game series .

Company history

Years of construction

In January 2007 the Board of Directors of the British publisher Eidos decided to set up a new development studio in Montreal. Eidos commissioned Stéphane D'Astous, who had previously been a manager at Ubisoft Montreal and with whom the company had already established initial contact during the Montreal Games Summit in November 2011, to set up the studio . When choosing the location, Eidos had previously decided against the Austin (Texas) and Vancouver locations, which are also under discussion . Reasons included the generous public subsidies and tax breaks as well as the presence of other game developers in Montreal, which made a large pool of specialists available. As further reasons, D'Astous named the good educational situation through schools and universities, the presence of numerous middleware providers such as Autodesk , comparatively low maintenance and living costs and the multicultural atmosphere of the city, which appeals to Europeans and Americans alike. D'Astous took over the post of General Manager, on February 15, 2007 the decision was announced publicly. From the management he received the instruction to revive the series Deus Ex and Thief , which was last developed by the studio Ion Storm Austin , which closed in 2005 . Overall, the studio was to oversee three game projects at the same time and expand to around 350 employees. Furthermore, Montreal should in future take over the quality assurance of all Eidos developments.

D'Astous worked from his house for the first four months, as the future studio did not yet have any office space. Among other things, because of his experience at Ubisoft Montreal, when D'Astous helped to expand the studio from 450 employees to 1500 over a period of three years, he pursued a strategy when building the studio that differed from industry practices. The teams should remain smaller overall, a maximum of 80 people instead of the usual more than a hundred developers. This should avoid the impression of a computer games factory for the employees. For this, the teams should be given a longer development period of 18 to 24 months instead of just 12 to 15 months for the pre-production and development of a game. Furthermore, the studio should concentrate exclusively on the development of high-quality large-scale productions based on the latest technology, so-called AAA titles, and not develop, for example, cheaper projects for mobile platforms.

Despite the highly competitive personnel market in Montreal, the studio was able to attract experienced developers with D'Astous' concept and the prospect of further developing the two traditional Eidos series. In particular, several employees from the 1,500-man Ubisoft Montreal development studio switched to Eidos due to the concept. David Anfossi , who took on the role of producer for Deus Ex , was hired as Eidos Montreal's second employee . In May, Eidos officially announced that the new studio was working on a sequel to Deus Ex: Invisible War .

With the takeover of Eidos by Square Enix in March 2009, the developer studio became a subsidiary of the Japanese publisher. Unlike the previous parent company, which was renamed Square Enix Europe, the studio retained its original name. Within the group, the studio continued to operate under the supervision of Square Enix Europe. In May 2009 Eidos Montreal finally confirmed the development of Thief 4 after long-lasting speculation .

First publications

On August 26, 2011, Eidos Montreal's debut Deus Ex: Human Revolution was published and, accompanied by high praise from critics and players, sold around 2.18 million copies by September 2011. According to the annual report of Square Enix, the game contributed significantly to the increase in group-wide sales figures for console games and the higher company profit compared to the previous year. In November 2011, Square Enix announced the expansion of its operations in Canada. At the instigation of D'Astous, however, the company stuck to its original concept of a manageable workforce. The number of employees at Eidos Montreal was therefore only increased from 350 to 450 people, instead a second studio, Square Enix Montreal, was founded in the city. Since the US sister studio Crystal Dynamics was unable to develop a multiplayer mode for the reboot of the Tomb Raider series itself due to a lack of capacity, Eidos Montreal took on this order and created the with a team of 40 to 50 developers in six months Online component of the game. The team then also took on work on downloading extensions for the game.

With the publication of the annual report in March 2013, the parent company Square Enix had to report losses despite the publication of three top-class productions, as the games would have remained below expectations despite good sales figures. As a result, the long-time Square Enix boss Yōichi Wada resigned from his post, the group initiated restructuring measures. Among other things, David Anfossi was appointed studio head of Eidos Montreal and the focus of the studio shifted to the development of mobile games. D'Astous, however, should turn to an unannounced new project that should improve the collaboration between the Square Enix development studios. In June, Eidos Montreal announced the title Deus Ex: The Fall for iOS devices , an offshoot of the Deus Ex series, whose naming rights the company had already registered in March.

The economic situation of the parent company also put more pressure on the developer. The development of Thief 4 proved to be problematic . The work was set back several times due to frequent changes to leading developer positions. After the first announcement of the game in 2009, no further information followed for a long time. Finally, the game was announced in the April 2013 issue of the US game magazine Game Informer only with the simple title Thief and as a reboot. Due to the unsatisfactory sales figures for the last games of the other group studios, however, Square Enix's expectations of Eidos Montreal also increased, namely to deliver a commercially successful game. In an interview with the online magazine Joystiq, producer Stefan Roy described the production as a “ single shot ”, which was needed to successfully revive and continue the series.

At the end of July 2013, studio founder Stephane D'Astous announced his departure due to irreconcilable differences with the management of Square Enix Europe (formerly Eidos) responsible for Eidos Montreal. He criticized, among other things, a lack of leadership and a lack of courage and communication on the part of the headquarters in London. He was succeeded by David Anfossi.

Published games

In addition, the studio took over the quality assurance for further developments of the Square Enix group:

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Edge editors: How Eidos Montreal is reviving high-stakes series and defying accepted industry working practices ( en ) In: Edge . Future, plc . July 23, 2013. Archived from the original on July 26, 2013. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
  2. ↑ gamasutra.com
  3. ↑ a b gamasutra.com
  4. ^ Eidos Opens Studio in Montreal ( Memento of February 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b polygon.com
  6. ^ Mathew Kumar: Better Living Through Order: An Eidos Montreal Studio Tour ( en ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . December 19, 2007. Accessed July 31, 2013.
  7. ↑ a b Christian Nutt: 'No Bullshit': The Management Style Behind Deus Ex: HR's Success ( en ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . April 9, 2012. Accessed July 31, 2013.
  8. ↑ a b 5th Anniversary Special Interview ( Memento from March 30, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ gamasutra.com
  10. ↑ xbox360achievements.org
  11. ↑ Daemon Hatfield: Eidos Confirms Next Deus Ex ( en ) In: IGN . News Corp . May 17, 2007. Retrieved May 18, 2007.
  12. ^ Square Enix closes on Eidos, Final Fantasy sells 85 million ( Memento from April 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ^ Square Enix Europe Formed ( Memento July 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ Goodbye Eidos, hello Square Enix Europe ( Memento from January 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ From Final Fantasy to Hitman: Square Enix's dramatic transformation
  16. ↑ Eidos Montreal confirms Thief 4, 'worst kept secret' in industry ( Memento from January 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ gamasutra.com
  18. ↑ Fred Dutton: Deus Ex: Human Revolution sells 2.18 million ( en ) In: Eurogamer.net . EuroGamer Network. November 4, 2011. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
  19. ^ Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. Reports Financial Results for the Nine-Month Period Ended December 31, 2011 ( en , PDF; 104 kB) In: Official company website . Square Enix . February 3, 2012. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015. Retrieved on February 28, 2012.
  20. ↑ MH Williams: Square Enix Profits Jump 175 Percent ( en ) In: Industry Gamers . February 3, 2012. Archived from the original on February 6, 2012. Retrieved on February 28, 2012.
  21. ↑ gamasutra.com
  22. ↑ a b polygon.com
  23. ↑ polygon.com
  24. ↑ Sinan Kubba: Deus Ex: The Fall trademarked, while Human Defiance points toward film ( en ) In: Joystiq . AOL . March 6, 2013. Archived from the original on January 28, 2015. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  25. ^ Valerie Bourdeau: Announcing Deus Ex: The Fall ( en ) Eidos Montreal. June 7, 2013. Archived from the original on September 20, 2014. Retrieved July 9, 2013.
  26. ↑ polygon.com
  27. ↑ arstechnica.com
  28. ↑ Thief producer: 'We have a single shot' ( Memento from January 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  29. ↑ gamestar.de
  30. ↑ Eidos Montreal boss leaves the company ( Memento from July 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  31. ↑ The 2011 Edge Awards: studio ( Memento from April 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  32. ↑ gamasutra.com