Gearbox has established a new studio in Montreal in order to work on new games in addition to other Borderlands games. The studio will add 250 new jobs to the local game development community and will be headed up by Sébastien Caisse, PhD and Pierre-André Déry. It remains to be seen what exact games it’ll be working on.
Gearbox’s home studio is based in Frisco, TX, but the company has already expanded into Quebec as of 2015 when it opened a studio in Quebec City (it was also co-founded by Caisse and Déry). According to Caisse: “We’ve had resounding success with our first studio expansion in Québec, allowing Gearbox to grow its creative engine along with the ambition of its games. The games we want to make drive our growth, and some great talent resides in Montréal. I’m excited and humbled to co-lead the development of our latest studio expansion.”
Studio head Randy Pitchford said in a statement: “The Gearbox Entertainment Company is ambitiously looking both internationally and domestically to grow our creative engine and meet the incredible demand our customers have for talent-crafted experiences with our intellectual property. Following our successful experience establishing Gearbox Studio Quebec, our investment in a new studio in Montreal creates an exciting new prospect for Montreal-based talent – whether they wish to work on existing Gearbox franchises, or help with the creation of new, original ideas.”
It’s not clear whether or not the studio has any new intellectual property in mind for its new studio. The language in the press release makes it seem that the company is open to ideas from the existing Montreal gaming community. Dery said of the studio: “Building on Gearbox’s long history of creative freedom, we are excited to assemble a new development team to work on the Borderlands franchise and create new IP in Montréal.”
