Bethesda Game Studios has opened a new office in Montreal, Quebec. The Maryland-based company has opened an additional studio in Montreal, its first satellite office.
Todd Howard, Bethesda Game Studio’s executive producer, said Bethesda has worked with “very talented developers” in Montreal for quite some time, and the company “decided it was time to open a studio there.” The studio already has a team of at least 40 people, and is being led by Yves Lachance, who most recently worked on the hit mobile game Fallout Shelter. Lachance is also known from working as the studio head of Behaviour Interactive.
Lachance has stated that he is “thrilled” to be opening an office in Montreal and “contributing our city’s great game-making talent” to help develop future Bethesda games. Fallout Shelter proved to be a huge success amongst fans and mobile users. It was Bethesda’s first mobile game, and is still a very popular title on mobile devices. Its not surprising if the studio continues to explore the mobile gaming market, but I don’t expect it to be the core focus of the studio. Bethesda Softworks vice president of PR and marketing Pete Hines discussed the studios future in an interview with IGN back in July. “This isn’t the start of a formula where every time we make a game we need to do a mobile game,” he said. The Montreal studio will also be working on console titles, but as for which platforms or games it’s currently developing, is still uncertain.
Bethesda’s most recent release, Fallout 4, was launched back on November 12th and sold 12 million units. 1.87 million downloadable copies of Fallout 4 sold in the first 3 days, on Xbox One, Playstation 4 and PC. The game was also patched recently on December 7th, and fixed issues such as players getting stuck and certain quest lines. Fallout 4 was developed at Bethesda’s Maryland offices in the United States, but with the new studio in Montreal, it’s currently hiring for both locations.
This is certainly very exciting news and means that games must already be in early idea phases. Let us know what you think of this developing news. Did you play Fallout Shelter or Fallout 4 and what do you hope to see next from the studios?
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