Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human developer Quantic Dream definitely has grand ambitions as it looks to build to the future. It was nearly two years ago that the developer announced that it would be shifting gears as it sought to become a global, multi-franchise, and multiplatform developer, with plans for self-publishing its games in place.
Now, the developer has announced that it has opened up a new studio, in Montreal, Canada. The studio is being led by industry veteran Stéphane D’Astous, who has previously worked as Director of Operations at Ubisoft and General Manager at Eidos Montreal, among several other places.
As per D’Astous, Quantic Dreams’ Paris and Montreal studios will work hand-in-hand and will both contribute to the same projects, rather than each working on its own individual games, with the Montreal studio focusing on gameplay and mechanics.
“Our approach is definitely ‘hand in hand; we all work on the same projects, which require a great deal of cohesion between the two studios,” D’Astous says. “Here in Montreal, we’re responsible for developing the game mechanics and all the gameplay. We can only succeed if we work as a team.”
Quantic Dream Montreal has also recruited Yohan Cazaux as Gameplay Director. Cazaux leaves his previous position at Ubisoft, where he had been for nearly fourteen years, and was involved with the development of multiple Assassin’s Creed titles, including Black Flag, Origins, and Valhalla.
As per Quantic Dreams’ careers page, he Montreal studio is still looking to fill several other major positions, including Lead Programmer, Senior Level Designer, Senior Gameplay Animator, and more.
As for what games we can expect to see from Quantic Dream in the future, that’s anyone’s best guess right now. The developer has said in the past that it has some “exciting” things in the works, while founder David Cage has also said that he would like to experiment with shorter games. Read more on that through here.
