Neither TiMi Studio Group, nor parent company Tencent has provided any statement about the studio’s closure over the weekend.

When the founding of TiMi Montreal was announced, the studio was described as working on a new AAA title that would also include elements of open-world games as well as live-service titles. The project was being worked on alongside TiMi Seattle.

Considering the timing of this studio’s opening, as well as it being the third North American studio opened up under the TiMi Studio Group banner, it could be seen as part of the wave of post-pandemic investments we saw from many Chinese tech companies at the time. The gaming industry as a whole was seeing a boom thanks to lockdowns, which led to quite a bit of money flowing freely from several major gaming companies.

The closure of TiMi Montreal could be seen as a sign of Tencent slowly starting to pull back on its investments into Western game development studios. Short of an actual comment by the company, however, this is ultimately just speculation.

Fellow Chinese gaming giant NetEase had also been seen as slowly pulling back on its investments in Western game development companies around the same time last year. At the time, venture capital firm F4 Fund founder David Kaye had spoken about “the whims of certain CEOs,” referring to NetEase, and geopolitical tensions leading to investments being pulled.

“China is in retreat: geopolitical tensions, some big bets not paying off, and the whims of certain CEOs mean that a massive pullback has begun,” said Kaye. “One MAJOR strategy that has made dozens of investments in the past several years is reportedly pulling the plug and divesting ALL investments outside China. Some will likely find buyers. Others will not be so lucky.”

In its own comment, NetEase had noted that it wasn’t pulling out all of its investments, pointing to hero shooter Marvel Rivals and sci-fi survival game Once Human as its success stories.

“As far as overseas business efforts are concerned, NetEase has not wavered in its global expansion plans,” said NetEase in a statement. “Our ‘two-pronged’ approach, proposed in 2022 (combining self-research and investments to explore overseas markets), is still actively progressing and yielding positive results.”

“For titles developed by the self-owned studios, we successfully launched games like Once Human and Marvel Rivals in 2024. These projects demonstrate NetEase’s ability, along with our talented development teams, to produce high-quality games loved by players worldwide.”

For what it’s worth, Marvel Rivals has proven to be quite successful since its launch, and has also seen continued support through post-launch seasonal updates introducing new maps and playable characters to the shooter from across the Marvel multiverse.

The funding seemingly came from the TiMi Studio Group, and was noted as being “the undisclosed lead financial backer” for the studio. Interestingly workers at the studio also seemed to be unaware of this money coming in, with the report noting that it was “one of several mysteries swirling around the studio”. The financial support didn’t involve any stakes in Wildlight Entertainment itself, however, with the report also stating that the studio is “technically independent and not part of TiMi.”

The studio was hit by lay-offs earlier this month owing to the negativity surrounding the PvP raid shooter. While the exact number of employees affected wasn’t revealed, the studio said in a statement that it is maintaining a small team that will continue the game’s development.

“Today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game,” wrote the developer. “We’re proud of the team, talent, and the product we’ve created together. We’re also grateful for players who gave the game a shot, and those who continue to be a part of our community.”

One former developer—technical artist and rigger Josh Sobel—wrote a lengthy post discussing the title’s unveiling, launch, and the negativity surrounding it. Sobel also referred to Wildlight Entertainment as being “our independent, self-published, dev-led studio,” which indicates that, despite its financial investments, Tencent’s TiMi Studio Group didn’t seem to have any creative control over the development of Highguard.

Things have been looking more dire for Highguard. Despite it having hit a peak of almost 100,000 concurrent players on PC (via SteamDB) at its launch, it has since struggled to hang on to even a tenth of its player base. At the time of publishing, the PvP raid shooter saw a 24-hour peak of 1,507 players, and over the previous week, has been struggling to hit the 3,000 mark.

The future of Highguard has also been recently called into question, since the website has been unavailable all day. The studio itself hasn’t made any comment about its website being down, with its last social media post being the announcement of lay-offs from February 12th. The game’s social media account hasn’t done much since that day after having published patch notes either.

Highguard was launched on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in January after having previously been revealed through a show-closing trailer at The Game Awards 2025. The unveiling was quite controversial, with even studio co-founder Chad Grenier referring to it as having been “maybe a little risky” in hindsight. Since then, however, Wildlight has continued to release updates for the game, including a major Episode 2 patch earlier this month.

“At the time of the trailer in 2023, we were just 2 bedroom programmers with no experience in the industry,” wrote the studio in its social media post. “The game was just 6 months old and exceeded all our expectations. With limited finances, we started from scratch, working sleepless nights and handling everything from business to creation. Two years later, we are 10 developers and we are still hiring.”

“Today, we’re proud to announce that we finally have the budget to make Unrecord and build the best game possible. Many thanks to our investors, who enjoyed playing the game and placed their trust in us.”

Thanks to this investment, the studio has noted that it is now fully focused on production and will start sharing more updates about how development is going throughout 2026. These updates, said DRAMA, will “reflect our true final vision.”

The investment comes from Tencent, which has also bought a minority stake in DRAMA. Celebrating this deal, studio CEO and founder Theo Hiribarne spoke about having found “a team genuinely passionate about our game and vision,” as well as how the developers have been working hard “to build a game that meets the expectations of our community.”

“Since the surge of attention after our initial trailer, we’ve worked relentlessly to build a game that meets the expectations of our community,” he said, according to GamesIndustry.biz.

“In Tencent, we found not just a world-class partner, but a team genuinely passionate about our game and vision. Despite its scale, Tencent has approached this partnership with humility, respect, and a real appreciation for our creative identity. It believed in Unrecord early and has supported us at every stage of our growth. We’re confident this collaboration will help us reach our full potential.”

Mark Maslowicz, the VP of partnerships at Tencent Games Europe, also provided his own statement, noting that the company wants to invest in creative talent, as well as how impressed it has been with the development progress that has been made on Unrecord since it was first unveiled back in 2023.

“Tencent believes deeply in creative talent,” he said. “We’ve been consistently impressed by the drive and dynamism of Drama Studios, and the remarkable progress it has made on Unrecord, especially with such a small team and limited resources. This investment will help the studio unlock their full potential and deliver the first of many outstanding games. We’re excited to be part of Drama Studios journey.”

The first trailer for Unrecord from 2023 had become incredibly popular owing to the title’s focus on visual fidelity. This focus also came with some controversy, however, with some alleging that DRAMA has been faking the trailer by using real-world footage. The studio had released its own statement in response, with co-director Alexandre Spindler showing off the trailer being worked on in Unreal Engine 5.

Unrecord doesn’t yet have a release date. However, since it is now fully funded, we will likely start seeing more details about the title soon.

Among the actions noted in the filing are the fact that “there will be no new promotion or public testing of Light of Motiram during the pendency of the Motion for Preliminary Injunction,” and that “the Light of Motiram release will not be moved up to before Q4 2027,” as well as Tencent not being able to “seek expedited discovery in connection” with the motion.

The motion for preliminary injunction is slated to take place on December 17, with Sony’s deadline for filing its response to this motion being January 2, 2026. The main court hearing date on the motions for dismissal as well as for preliminary injunction are both slated to take place on January 29, 2026.

Sony had filed its lawsuit back in July, where it had referred to Light of Motiram as a “slavish clone” of the Horizon games. As part of this initial filing, the company had also confirmed that it was approached by Tencent for a collaboration on a new title in the franchise, but that this was ultimately declined. Sony alleges that Tencent went ahead and kicked off development of Light of Motiram. The console maker’s goal with the lawsuit is to seek monetary damages up to an unspecified amount, as well as a court order to block Tencent from violating the Horizon IP.

In response to this, Tencent had offered up its own statement, calling Sony’s lawsuit an “improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture.”

“Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies – and ten unnamed defendants – about the unreleased video game Light of Motiram, alleging that the game copies elements from Sony’s game Horizon Zero Dawn and its spinoffs,” said Tencent about the lawsuit. “At bottom, Sony’s effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property.”

“It is an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony’s exclusive domain,” the statement continued. “In Sony’s telling, Horizon Zero Dawn is ‘like no fictional world created before [or] since.’” Tencent calls this claim “startling, because it is flatly contradicted by Sony’s own developers, not to mention the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolize through this lawsuit.”

While Tencent went ahead and referred to other popular media, including The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Biomutant, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Far Cry Primal and Outer Wilds among many others that make use of similar aesthetics, Sony would fire back with its own statement weighing in at 42 pages in length, where the company would call Tencent’s lengthy statement “nonsense”.

Since the lawsuit, Tencent had also updated the Steam listing for Light of Motiram with brand new art work that removed the potential for comparison with the Horizon franchise.

“The transaction with Tencent is on track to close in the coming days,” wrote Ubisoft in its earnings report. “All conditions precedent have been satisfied. At closing, the €1.16bn investment will deleverage the Group. It will also enable the acceleration of Vantage Studios’ IP growth, support selected investment opportunities across the rest of the Group, and facilitate ongoing reorganization efforts.”

Further in the report, a statement by Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot referred to Vantage studios as “a key element” when it comes to Ubisoft’s future plans. He also noted that this deal with Tencent marks a “pivotal milestone” for Ubisoft thanks to its stronger position from the €1.16 billion deal.

“This marks a pivotal milestone in Ubisoft’s transformation, significantly strengthening our financial position by bringing in €1.16 billion of cash, enabling the Group to deleverage, as planned,” said Guillemot. “It will also empower Vantage Studios to accelerate the growth of our three flagship IPs under a dedicated leadership team.”

“Vantage Studios represents a key element of the transformation of the company towards a new operating model built around Creative Houses. We will have finalized the design of this new organization by the end of the year. These Creative Houses will be autonomous, efficient, focused and accountable business units, each with its own leadership, creative vision and strategic roadmap.”

In his statement, Guillemot also spoke about how some of Ubisoft’s releases had performed over the year. While he noted that Rainbow Six Siege had been experiencing “softer trends” in what he calls “an intense FPS environment,” he went on top say that other releases in the Ubisoft catalogues had strong performances. This includes the Assassin’s Creed franchise, as well as The Division 2.

“Our portfolio showed contrasting dynamics this quarter, with softer trends for Rainbow Six Siege, reflecting a phase of evolution for the game in an intense FPS environment, offset by strong performances across the rest of the catalog,” said Guillemot. “The Assassin’s Creed franchise exceeded our expectations, confirming its positive momentum and ability to engage players over time. The Division 2 also continued to perform strongly, benefiting from the momentum of the Battle for Brooklyn DLC, with the game’s first semester already exceeding last year’s annual bookings.”

Ubisoft had announced the name of its new subsidiary – Vantage Studios – earlier this year. Back in October, the company also confirmed that the subsidiary will be taking on the responsibility of working on Ubisoft’s biggest franchises – Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six. The subsidiary’s leadership is comprised of co-CEOs Charlie Guillemot and Christophe Derennes, and it is in charge of various studios across Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia.

“Tencent remarkably contends [Sony Interactive Entertainment]’s claims are unripe because—despite having announced and continuously promoted its game for months—Tencent (purportedly) delayed Light of Motiram’s release until 2027 after SIE sued,” wrote Sony in its statement. “This is nonsense. The damage is done—and it continues. SIE has already suffered injury by Tencent promoting its knock-off game, as made clear by the many instances of actual consumer confusion documented in the Complaint that Tencent does not—and cannot—challenge in its motion. The Court can redress past, ongoing, and imminent infringement.”

Further in the document, the company also calls in to question Tencent’s claims that it shouldn’t fall under the jurisdiction of US-based courts, since Tencent Holdings is based out of the Cayman Islands. Sony noted that “this Court has jurisdiction over Tencent Holdings. The multi-billion dollar global conglomerate holds the U.S. trademark registration for the infringing game Light of Motiram and owns the domain registration for the official promotional website where much of the material giving rise tot he lawsuit was performed and distributed to a California and U.S. audience.”

Sony filed its lawsuit against Tencent in California back in July, accusing the company of stealing ideas from the Horizon franchise for upcoming title Light of Motiram. In its lawsuit, Sony called Tencent’s game a “slavish clone” of Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, and has alleged that the release of Light of Motiram will end up causing consumer confusion.

As part of its filing, Sony also revealed that Tencent had initially approached the company for a collaboration for a new game in the Horizon franchise last year, but that it had declined this. Shortly afterwards, Tencent unveiled Light of Motiram. The goal of the lawsuit for Sony is monetary damages up to an unspecified amount, along with a court order to prevent Tencent from infringing on the Horizon IP.

In response to this lawsuit, Tencent had released its own statement, calling the company out for its “improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture”.

“Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies – and ten unnamed defendants – about the unreleased video game Light of Motiram, alleging that the game copies elements from Sony’s game Horizon Zero Dawn and its spinoffs,” said Tencent about the lawsuit. “At bottom, Sony’s effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property.”

Tencent also noted other games from throughout the industry that also look similar to the aesthetics presented in Light of Motiram, including Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, among others.

“Plaintiff Sony has sued a grab-bag of Tencent companies – and ten unnamed defendants – about the unreleased video game Light of Motiram, alleging that the game copies elements from Sony’s game Horizon Zero Dawn and its spinoffs,” said Tencent about the lawsuit. “At bottom, Sony’s effort is not aimed at fighting off piracy, plagiarism, or any genuine threat to intellectual property.”

“It is an improper attempt to fence off a well-trodden corner of popular culture and declare it Sony’s exclusive domain,” the statement continues. “In Sony’s telling, Horizon Zero Dawn is ‘like no fictional world created before [or] since.'” Tencent calls this claim “startling, because it is flatly contradicted by Sony’s own developers, not to mention the long history of video games featuring the same elements that Sony seeks to monopolize through this lawsuit.”

Further in its statement, Tencent even brings up comparisons made by art director of Horizon Zero Dawn, Jan-Bart Van Beek, drew with 2013 action adventure title Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.

“Sony’s complaint tellingly ignores these facts,” said Tencent. “Instead it tries to transform ubiquitous genre ingredients into proprietary assets. By suing over an unreleased project that merely employes the same time-honored tropes embraced by scores of other games released both before and after Horizon—like Enslaved, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Far Cry: Primal, Far Cry: New Dawn, Outer Wilds, Biomutant, and many more—Sony seeks an impermissible monopoly on genre conventions.”

Tencent then goes on to bring up faults in Sony’s complaints, such as the latter not alleging any facts that would implicate actions by Tencent under a jurisdiction where Sony would operate, as well as Sony’s lack of statement with regards to a claim for which relief could then be granted. “Instead, Sony’s threadbare, conclusory allegations improperly lump [Tencent America, Proxima Beta U.S. and Tencent Holdings] together with the foreign companies alleged to be responsible for the core conduct at issue.” Finally, Tencent also calls out Sony for “speculation regarding potential future conduct related to Light of Motiram’s forthcoming release”.

Sony had announced its lawsuit against Tencent for Light of Motiram back in July, with the allegations of it being a “slavish clone” of the Horizon titles that has the potential to confuse potential buyers because of the similarities between the how the titles look. In response to the lawsuit, Tencent had changed up some of its marketing for Light of Motiram, going as far as changing up the art work for the title that was being shown off on its Steam page. This includes the removal of any mentions of “colossal machines”.

In the lawsuit, Sony has referred to Light of Motiram as being a “slavish clone” of its Guerrilla-developed titles Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West, and has alleged that the title will confuse potential buyers because of how similar Tencent’s game looks.

Sony has also revealed that it was approached by Tencent for a collaboration on a new game in the Horizon franchise some time last year, but that it declined. The announcement for Light of Motiram, according to Sony, came shortly after this collaboration approach. Through the lawsuit, Sony is seeking monetary damages up to an unspecified amount, as well as a court order that would block Tencent from violating the Horizon IP.

Light of Motiram was announced late last year, and instantly came under fire for how similar it looks to Sony’s Horizon games. Fans were quick to take to Reddit threads and other social media platforms to discuss the similarities between the Mechanimals of Light of Motiram and the machines we see in Horizon games. Even the key art, noted fans, was incredibly similar.

Light of Motiram got a trailer earlier this year that gave us a look at the Outcast Forest zone. Along with showcasing the zone itself, the trailer also went into detail about some of the more unique aspects of the upcoming title’s gameplay, such as the ability for players to put on a helmet that can allow them to take control of the Mechanimals.

The zone itself was described in the trailer as a woodland area where exiles of the Dariman Tribe were sent after being convicted of crimes. This likely means that players will have their hands full as they deal with hardened criminals, and that friendly characters and allies will likely be hard to come by.

Light of Motiram is currently in development for PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store), PS5, iOS and Android. Neither Tencent, nor developers Aurora Studio and Polaris Quest have confirmed a release date for the game so far. However, it has been available to wishlist through online stores for quite some time now, with the store listings noting a 2025 release window. When it comes out, the title will be free-to-play.

The upcoming game will have quite a bit of emphasis on its survival mechanics, and players will have to make sure that they have enough materials to not only build up their base, but also to craft equipment that is good enough to allow them to survive in its harsh environments. The building system itself will be powered by realistic physics simulations to allow players quite a bit of freedom in their architecture.

Light of Motiram also has online multiplayer, letting players jump in and out of each others’ games without having to worry about matching progression.

In the interview, Guillemot spoke about his experience working at Ubisoft as well as other companies where he has led teams and managed brands successfully. “Yes, I’m Yves’ son,” he explained. “That’s not something I hide from. But my appointment isn’t only about family ties; it’s about what Ubisoft needs at this moment.”

“I’ve spent the last decade building experience both inside and outside Ubisoft, leading teams, managing brands, and navigating change in a fast-moving industry. I also made the conscious choice to step away when it made sense, to learn and grow elsewhere.”

Guillemot went on to speak about some of the plans for the future of Ubisoft as a whole. With the subsidiary being focused on single-player story-based games as well as live-service multiplayer titles and even mobile games, Guillemot noted that he has his work cut out for him when it comes to growing the new company.

“What matters now isn’t my name, it’s the work ahead,” Guillemot added. “Ubisoft is at a pivotal moment. What’s expected of me is to help push the company forward by bringing energy, focus, and by relying on the incredible expertise that already exists across the teams. I see myself as someone here to contribute, support, and help create the right conditions are in place for everyone to do their best work.”

“And beyond that, this industry is where I want to be. There’s nowhere quite like it, where creativity, talent, and technology intersect in such dynamic ways, and where you constantly have to adapt to new platforms, new ideas, new expectations from players. That’s what draws me in.”

The subsidiary was founded as part of a €1.16 billion between Ubisoft and Tencent, and was officially announced all the way back in March. The fact that it would be focusing on single-player and live-service multiplayer games was revealed in its earnings report from May. As part of the deal between Ubisoft and Tencent, the former will maintain ownership of its major IP, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, while Tencent will own a 25 percent minority interest in the subsidiary.

“With this transaction, Tencent will invest €1.16bn in a primary issuance by the New Subsidiary, acquiring an approximate 25% economic interest,” explained the company during its earnings report in May. “At closing, at least €500m will be upstreamed to Ubisoft, ensuring sufficient working capital needs of the New Subsidiary at start.”

As for the subsidiary itself, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot had said that it was created to allow the whole company to remain agile while also having high ambitions. He also spoke about wanting to grow its bigger brands while also creating new IPs.

The report has also revealed that Arrowhead Game Studios made an operating profit of around $76 million in the last year, with an overall turnover of roughly $100 million. According to the studio’s chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt, the decision to make a deal with Tencent came about because Arrowhead Game Studios wants to also attract more gamers from the Chinese market. “Chinese player base is the holy grail in the gaming industry,” he said.

While Arrowhead Game Studios has worked on a number of different titles in the past, including classic chaotic co-op games like Magicka, the studio’s most successful title so far has been co-op shooter Helldivers 2. After having an impressive launch followed by a bit of drop off in player numbers, the game has recently started bouncing back. Back in May, Helldivers 2 got an impressive concurrent player count of more than 129,000 players thanks to its Heart of Democracy update.

As part of the update, Super Earth itself was under attack by the Illuminate, with players being forced to drop into major cities on the planet in order to mount a defense. The update brought with it a new type of map that focused more on urban warfare than players would have been used to, having previously fought against the Terminids, Automatons and Illuminate on alien planets with a variety of biomes.

Heart of Democracy was a follow-up update after a major one was released just before, which brought with it a big new gameplay feature in the form of weapon customisation. Since the update, players have been able to level up their primary weapons as they complete missions. Leveling the weapons up allows players to unlock attachments for the weapons, giving players more options in terms of playing style.

Pilestedt also revealed back in May that Helldivers 2 gets around 2.5 million players just about every week. This reveal came just as the Heart of Democracy update was being released. In his post, Pilestedt noted that he was “super excited to see how many more log in with this update.” He also said that he was “so happy and blessed that we have such an amazing community!”

Helldivers 2 is available on PC and PS5. Since its release last year, the title has gotten quite a few major updates, complete with the in-game Galactic War storyline evolving based on whether players have been able to complete Critical Orders issued by the in-game game master Joel.

The studio celebrated the first year of Helldivers 2 back in February with a video series featuring Joel recounting his favourite moments from the Galactic War metanarrative.