THQ's Montreal Studio, planned to open in 2010, will represent the company's largest development facility, with a focus on developing core titles and supporting its global studio system with other projects. Heading up the new studio will be Dave Gatchel, the former general manager of THQ's Paradigm Entertainment studio, which was shuttered late last year along with several other development facilities.

Montreal once again proves it has the incentive and support system in place to lure in the major game studios.

"Montreal's outstanding pool of creative digital media talent and its highly regarded university system makes this the ideal location to support our future product and technology development needs," said Steve DeCosta, THQ senior vice president, THQ Core Games, Operations and Finance. "Moreover, government support, in the form of reimbursable tax credits and other incentives, enabled Montreal to stand out as the best combination of creative talent and favorable economics of the cities we evaluated for our new studio."

Expect the first games out of THQ Montreal sometime in fiscal year 2013.

Funcom's new Canadian headquarters will be put to use immediately, with skilled teams being formed to work on both Age of Conan and the upcoming MMO The Secret World, which the company will be showing off at PAX 09 this weekend. The Montreal location further extends Funcom's global presence, joining previously established offices in Norway, China, the U.S., and Switzerland.

Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas sings the praises of our neighbors to the North.

"Montréal has established itself as one of the world's most important locations for video game production, and we are looking forward to taking part in that success. In addition to strengthening our North American presence, the new studio will take advantage of the great incentive programs offered by the Québec region, incentives that makes Montréal one of the most cost effective locations in the world for developing MMO games. This will in turn allow us to better balance our costs, making it possible for us to continue to expand our investments into the MMO segment."

We may kid our Canadian brethren from time to time, but one thing's for sure: they sure know how to woo game developers.

Rudder was greeted by friends and family in his hometown of Montreal as he arrived at the Pierre Trudeau International Airport. Though still in a wheelchair, Rudder said he received a "great gift" from his experience, speaking to all the love and support he got from fans everywhere while hospitalized.

"I'm going to get a sign that says 'World's luckiest guy,'" a beaming Rudder said.

Rudder was shot three times, once in the stomach, arm and leg, and survived the attack by playing dead while laying in a pool a blood before escaping.

Rudder provided voice work for the games Far Cry Instincts, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Splinter Cell, Jagged Alliance 2, and Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games.

Montreal actor wounded in Mumbai attacks returns home (CBC)

1. Your game may use any kind of aspect ratio and be as low-res as you want. (ex: 16×256, 64×8, 4×4) 2. Your game may use as many colors as you would like. 3. Your game should remain simple, pick-up-and-play. 4. A single game session should not last more than 5 minutes. 5. Your game should not rely on audio of any kind (no sound will be fed out of the game at the event). 6. Single-machine multiplayer is fine/great. 7. All games will remain the property of their respective creators.

Beyond that, the game's gotta run on Windows XP and use an Xbox 360 controller. I'm genuinely curious to see what will come out of this one.

resolutions [via game girl advance]

'Radical Edward' sent on these photos he took in Montreal of a whole big wall of Mario-themed graffiti with a rather wicked sense of humor. Princess Peach with a baby carriage and 'Luigé Vuitton', indeed.

You can see more shots over at Nintendo Gal. Maggie Greene

It's finally official: Assassin's Creed will be hitting both the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 worldwide this November.

The game, developed by Ubisoft's Montreal studio, will sell for $60, while the limited edition version will sell for $70. In the game you will play as Altair, an assassin trying to stop the hostilities of the Third Crusade in 1191 AD.

"Assassin's Creed is going to be a huge launch for Ubisoft this year along with the added prestige of being the start of this exciting new franchise that is bringing something completely new to the market," said Tony Key, vice president of marketing, Ubisoft. "We're confident that Assassin's Creed will exceed expectations as a 'must-have' title this holiday season and will achieve both critical and commercial success."

No word on whether the game will be making the leap to the portable market, though I would be surprised if it didn't. Hit the jump for the full press release.

SAN FRANCISCO - June 7, 2007 - Today Ubisoft, one of the world's largest video game publishers, announced the worldwide launch for the highly anticipated and critically acclaimed Assassin's Creed™ will be November 2007.

The Assassin's Creed franchise will make its debut on the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC. Assassin's Creed is being developed by an all-star team from Ubisoft's world-class Montreal studio. As a testament to its pre-launch following and buzz, the latest Assassin's Creed gameplay trailer, released on May 23, exceeded more than 1.3 million downloads via GameTrailers.com in less than a week.

"Assassin's Creed is going to be a huge launch for Ubisoft this year along with the added prestige of being the start of this exciting new franchise that is bringing something completely new to the market," said Tony Key, vice president of marketing, Ubisoft. "We're confident that Assassin's Creed will exceed expectations as a 'must-have' title this holiday season and will achieve both critical and commercial success."

The game is set in 1191 AD, when the Third Crusade was tearing the Holy Land apart. Shrouded in secrecy and feared for their ruthlessness, the Assassins intend to stop the hostilities by suppressing both sides of the conflict. Players will assume the role of the main character, Altair, and will have the power to throw their immediate environment into chaos and truly experience the art of a master assassin.

In 2006, Assassin's Creed received the Game Critics Award: Best of E3 2006 for "Best Action-Adventure Game" and swept the "Best PS3 Game" category across numerous video game Web sites.*

Assassin's Creed will be available in North America at the MSRP of $59.99 with the Limited Edition priced at $69.99 - ESRB rating is pending. For more information, please visit www.assassinscreed.com.

It's a pretty distressing day for gaming. First, Tyrone Spellman beat a 17 month old child to death when she knocked over his console. And now, news reports indicate that Kimveer Gill — the gunman responsible for yesterday's Montreal shooting spree — was influenced by the home-brew game Super Columbine Massacre.

"Life is like a video game," Gill wrote. "You gotta die sometime."

The question this and other tragedies raise, of course, is if gaming is a factor in what these people have done. And — whether we like it or no — it's a valid question, well-deserving an answer objective of our own passions.

But the question isn't whether or not video games make people killers. The question is whether art — the product of human creativity and sensitivity and emotion — makes someone willing to take a human life. Because the distinction between one medium of art and another is, at the end of the day, almost entirely semantic.

But did Catcher in the Rye make Mark David Chapman murder John Lennon? John Hinckley Jr. — the would-be assassin of Reagan — was also obsessed with the book. Did Catcher in the Rye make them killers? Or were they already killers drawn to the themes and misanthropy of the book, who would have committed their crimes regardless?

To me, it seems clear that any claims that games influence real-world violence have massively oppressive repercussions on art as a whole. A book like Catcher in the Rye would not be read — let alone taught in school — if society caved into the belief that what a man enjoys is solely responsible for the man that they are. Condemnation of games is a condemnation of art. But it's troubling that so many people can't see past the latest societal bugbear to the larger issue of freedom. Florian Eckhardt

Killer Loved Columbine Game [Toronto Sun]

The letter sent from the top dog at EA Montreal to the head cheese at Ubi Montreal, has stirred a lot of emotions inside both companies.

I received a letter from a passionate Ubisoft programmer who talks about his personal feelings about this latest tiff and how he views the non-compete clause he works under. The programmer was kind enough to allow me to reprint the email, anonymously.

There are some interesting points raised. Read the entire thing after the jump.

It is true that the non-competition rule in our contract is very spooky. When I read the contract they offered me, back when I got hired here, I was not only scared; I was also very mad. I talked to the HR department about it, and they reassured me that it had been enforced only once, in the case against EA we all know about. They explained to me that the situation then was very peculiar; Mr Tascan himself (who was formerly a founder here at Ubi Montreal if I recall correctly) approached the five top developers of the (at the time) new Splinter Cell franchise, the very first one that made the Ubisoft Montreal studio famous, and offered them a LOT of money in exchange for helping him start his brand new EA studio. This isn't just competition; this is sabotage. You whip out the big bucks, cut the head of a competitor's successful franchise, and acquire the expertise for yourself. (It seems that it didn't work as well as intended, considering what comes out of that studio... but I digress...)

That being said, I am still annoyed by that part of my contract, but not mad. I've seen at least five developers here leave for other companies, in Montreal or elsewhere in North America, declaring so overtly in their goodbye emails, and no one got any trouble for it. Turns out, Ubi will not enforce their non-competition policy for individuals. Not only that, but that last time where they did enforce it, it caused a massive drop in the morale of their employees as well as very bad public rep.

One could wonder why the contracts still have that line. My guess is that it is in order to protect the company from more "massive marauding". Games aren't the only industry where this exists and is loosely enforced; I just heard one guy mentioning that he works in the elevators industry and has the same kind of contract. Yet no one there freaks out about it since it is granted that it won't be enforced except in extreme cases. I'd prefer not having that in my contract, but it definitely doesn't prevent me from looking around for other opportunities.

Now, you get the boss of a company that will often lay dozens of employees off at a time at the end of projects, enforces overtime by threatening with lay offs, claiming that their competitors treat their employees like crap by... not allowing them to go work for him? Which is false, considering that people did leave here to work there in the least few years, and nothing happened as far as I know.

Like a friend of mine mentioned, this whole thing is just like a wife-beater telling a neighbor to stop yelling at his wife. It's hypocritical, ridiculous and infuriating. I'm not saying he isn't right about the whole government funding part, which when tied-in to this, makes it look rather fishy. But it's a world of business. I strongly doubt Mr Tascan proclaimed this in order to be the Defender of Justice For Game Developers.

Anonymous Ubi Programmer

In the letter, Tescan allegedly berates Tremblay for snatching away employees from EA and for forcing their employees to sign soul-crushing contracts.

The beginning reads:

On behalf of all game makers in Quebec, I urge Ubisoft to stop the illegitimate practice of forcing talented people to sign employment contracts that restrict their creative and economic freedom.

Wow, just wow. I posted this item earlier, saying that I thought it had to be fake. I mean, hypocrisy on such a grand scale can never be real, right? Wrong. Unfrigginbelievable.

EA to Ubi Letter [Primotechnology]