People Can Fly opens a new studio in Montreal

The Outriders developer has announced it is opening a new studio in Montreal, Canada to work on a new AAA project that is deep into development.

The details:

• The studio announced the opening in a LinkedIn post featuring the new office space and a short message stating that it will be a place for its team to "collaborate and transform their ideas into thrilling game experiences." The description of the new studio on the developer's website suggests that it may have opened some time ago, but it was only recently made public as it ramps up its hiring. "Montreal's amazing atmosphere and well-seasoned gamedev industry make this project extremely exciting for us," according to the project description. "We believe that PCF Montreal will soon play a major role in our studios' portfolio.”
• It will contribute to the development of Project Maverick, a AAA "highly ambitious, groundbreaking action-adventure title" led by Roland Lesterlin at the company's New York studio and set to be published by Microsoft. Just Cause 3 was previously directed by Lesterlin at Avalanche Studios' New York office, with studio head David Grijns also working on the project.
• People Can Fly now has seven studios around the world, including the two mentioned above in North America, one in Newcastle, England, and four in Poland, one of which is its Warsaw headquarters. There are eight projects in the works between the studios, including a VR port of Bulletstorm, self-published releases Bifrost, Victoria, and Dagger, Gemini with Square Enix, and Maverick with Microsoft. Project Maverick was announced last month with a budget of $30-50 million, which will be paid entirely by Microsoft, the IP's owner.
• The studio is now hiring for a variety of positions across multiple departments, but it appears that the majority of the roles currently available are geared toward those with years of experience as it continues to lay a solid foundation. You can find the available positions on its careers website.

Other studio openings this year:

• Blank, a new studio founded by former CD Projekt Red employees responsible for titles such as The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, has announced plans to work on a "character-driven story from an apocalypse." The project is still in its early stages, but the developers promise "a twist or two.”
• The Hitman franchise's developer, IO Interactive, has opened a studio in Brighton, England, where it will work on all of the company's ongoing projects. CEO Hakan Abrak stated that IO intends to keep the studio under 150 employees to "avoid having that feeling of a factory" and that it will collaborate with the company's other four studios.