Eidos Montreal

Eidos Montreal is a Canadian development studio for computer games. Founded as a branch of the British games publisher Eidos Interactive, since acquisition of the parent company, it is now part of the Japanese game publisher Square Enix. The studio is also responsible for the development of the Games Series Deus Ex and Thief.

Company History

Formative years

In January 2007, decided the Board of Directors of the British publisher Eidos to build a new development studio in Montreal. With the construction of the studio commissioned Stéphane D' Astous Eidos, who had previously been manager at Ubisoft Montreal, and to which the company had built up a first contact is already ending the Montreal Games Summit in November 2011. When choosing the location to Eidos had previously decided against the also under discussion Locations Austin (Texas ) and Vancouver. Reasons for this were the generous public subsidies and tax breaks, as well as the presence of other game developers in Montreal, creating a large pool of skilled labor was available. Other reasons D' Astous called the good training situation by schools and universities, the presence of many middleware vendors such as Autodesk, relatively low maintenance and cost of living as well as a multi-cultural atmosphere of the city, the anspreche Europeans and Americans alike. D' Astous took over the post of general manager, the decision was made ​​public on 15 February 2007. From management, he received the default to revive the last from 2005 closed studio Ion Storm Austin developed series Deus Ex and Thief. Overall, the studio should look after three games projects simultaneously and be expanded to about 350 employees. Furthermore Montreal should now be handled by the quality assurance of all Eidos developments.

The first four months worked D' Astous out of his house because the future studio still had no office space. Partly because of his experience at Ubisoft Montreal, as D' Astous mitbetreute the expansion of the studio from 450 employees to 1,500 over a period of three years, he pursued the construction of the studio a different compared to industry codes of practice strategy. Teams should remain generally small, up to 80 people instead of the usual over a hundred developers. For the employees so the impression of a factory for computer games should be avoided. For this, the team should get a longer development period of 18-24 instead of just 12-15 months for pre-production and development of a game. Furthermore, the studio should focus exclusively on the development of high-quality large-scale productions based on the latest technology, so-called AAA titles and, for example develop more favorable projects for mobile platforms.

Despite the highly competitive personnel market in Montreal, the studio with D' Astous ' concept, and the prospect was able to win on the development of two traditional Eidos series experienced developers. In particular, the 1500 -strong development studio Ubisoft Montreal several employees left because of the design to Eidos. When Eidos Montreal's David Anfossi second employee was set, who took over the role of producer for Deus Ex. In May Eidos officially announced that the new studio on a sequel to Deus Ex: Invisible War was working.

With the acquisition of Eidos by Square Enix in March 2009, the development studio is a subsidiary of Japanese publisher. Unlike the previous parent company, which was renamed Square Enix Europe, however, the studio retained its original name. In May 2009, Eidos Montreal finally confirmed after prolonged speculation and the development of Thief 4

First publications

26 August 2011 Eidos Montreal's Deus Ex first work was: Human Revolution published and sold together with a faultless critics and Spielerlob, to September 2011, approximately 2.18 million times. To make the game wore According to the annual report of the Square Enix at significantly to increase the Group's unit sales of console games and the higher corporate profits over the previous year. In November 2011, Square Enix announced the expansion of its operations in Canada. However, at the instigation of D' Astous, the company continued to hold fast to his original concept of manageable workforce size. The number of employees of Eidos Montreal has therefore only been increased from 350 to 450 people, was instead in town a second studio, Square Enix Montreal, was founded. Since the US-based sister studio Crystal Dynamics could not lift even the development of a multi- player mode 'for the reboot of the Tomb Raider series because of lack of capacity, Eidos Montreal took over this job and created with a team of 40-50 developers in six months the online component of the game. The team also took on work to download extensions to the game afterwards.

With the publication of the annual report in March 2013, the parent company Square Enix filed for losses despite publication of three high-profile productions, since the games would have remained despite good sales below expectations. As a result of many years of Square-Enix Yoichi Wada chief resigned from his post, the Group initiated a restructuring. Among other things, David Anfossi was appointed Head of Studio Eidos Montreal and moved the focus of the studio on the development of mobile games. D' Astous should, however, turn to a new unannounced project, which should improve the collaboration between Square - enix development studios. In June, Eidos Montreal announced the title Deus Ex: The case 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 at the same time made ​​for a stronger pressure on the developers. One problem proved to be the development of Thief 4 The work was thrown back several times due to frequent changes in senior developer positions. After the game Erstankündigung 2009 long time followed no further information. Finally, the game was announced in 2013, the April issue of American gaming magazine Game Informer just with the simple title as Thief and reboot. Due to the perceived unsatisfactory sales figures for the last games of the other companies studios but also increased expectations of Square Enix at Eidos Montreal to deliver a commercially successful game. Producer Stefan Roy described the production in an interview with the online magazine Joystiq as a " single shot" ( German: " single shot " ), which you have for the successful revival and continuation of the series.

End of July 2013 gave Stephane D' Astous Studio founder due to irreconcilable differences with the responsible for Eidos Montreal management by Square Enix Europe (formerly Eidos ) his resignation unknown. He criticized, among others, lack of leadership and a lack of courage and communication on the part of the headquarters in London. His successor was David Anfossi.

Released Games

• 2011: Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Windows, Mac OS, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U)
• 2013: Tomb Raider (Windows, Xbox 360, PS3)
• 2013: Deus Ex: The Fall ( iOS )
• 2014: Thief (Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4)

In addition, the studio took over the quality assurance for further development of the Square Enix Group:

• 2009: Batman: Arkham Asylum
• 2009: Mini Ninjas
• 2010: Just Cause 2
• 2010: Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
• 2012: Hitman: Absolution

Awards

• 2012: Developer Studio of the Year 2011 (Edge )
• 2012: Top 30 developer ( Gamasutra / Game Developer)