Square Enix Montréal
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Founded | October 6, 2011 |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
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Key people
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Patrick Naud (Head of Studio) |
| Products | Go series (2014–) |
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Number of employees
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40 (2016) |
| Parent | Square Enix Europe |
| Website | square-enix-montreal |
Square Enix Montreal is a studio under Square Enix based in Montreal, Canada. They are most known for creating the Go series, which is a series of turn-based puzzle games for smartphones and tablets based on former Eidos Interactive's properties including Hitman, Tomb Raider, and Deus Ex. The studio was founded in November 2011 to create a new Hitman series game for consoles and grow to employ several hundred people, but in late 2012 Square Enix decided to make one of their studios into a mobile-focused studio and changed Square Enix Montreal's mandate to make mobile games, beginning with the Hitman franchise. The company developed prototypes for two mobile Hitman games, which became the board game-inspired puzzle game Hitman Go (2014) and the shooter Hitman: Sniper (2015). The critical success of Hitman Go and its successor Lara Croft Go (2015), along with the commercial success of Sniper led the studio to create its latest title, Deus Ex Go (2016), with intention of combining the best elements of all their prior games.
Square Enix announced the opening of Square Enix Montreal in November 2011. The studio was led by Lee Singleton, who had led Square Enix London. Their first project was a new Hitman series game for consoles. Singleton said the studio was founded partially to work on such projects and create more high-quality games with Square Enix intellectual properties. The Hitman property, in particular, was to be co-developed with IO Interactive, which created the series and was at work on Hitman: Absolution (2012). Singleton planned to grow the studio beyond a single team to have multiple concurrent projects with up to 150 people, though the studio started with Singleton and three developers from IO Interactive. Singleton planned a slow design process, with no rush to production. The studio also received support from the Quebecois government.
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