Tencent has closed TiMi Montreal, ending nearly five years of AAA game development experiments without a game being released.
Tencent has officially shuttered TiMi Montreal, a key North American branch of its massive TiMi Studio Group. The decision, made last week, comes as a surprise to many, given that the studio was established in 2021 with significant fanfare but had yet to release or even officially announce a single title during its three-year run.
Unfulfilled AAA Ambitions
When TiMi Montreal opened its doors in Canada, it was tasked with a high-stakes mission: developing a massive, AAA open-world, cross-platform game. Despite the grand vision, the project remained shrouded in mystery. With TiMi’s headquarters in China managing three North American satellites Los Angeles, Seattle, and Montreal the closure of the Montreal office suggests that Tencent is scaling back its ambitious investment in Western-based game development.
A Talent Magnet Loses Its Pull
In its early stages, TiMi Montreal successfully recruited top-tier talent from the local gaming hub, most notably drawing several veterans from Ubisoft. One of the most high-profile hires was Ashraf Ismail, the former creative director of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, who joined the studio in 2022 to lead its unannounced project. The sudden dissolution of the studio leaves these industry veterans back on the market.
The overwhelming success of Black Myth: Wukong last year may prompt Tencent to reconsider its strategy, shifting its focus back to developing premium games from Chinese teams who have a better understanding of costs and corporate culture, rather than investing massive sums in hiring studios in high-cost overseas locations like Canada.
Montreal is one of the most competitive cities in the world for talent acquisition, housing companies like Ubisoft, EA, and Warner Bros. Retaining top-tier talent in the area is extremely costly, which may not align with Tencent's "Cost Cutting & Efficiency" policy for its global subsidiaries in 2025-2026.
Originally known for its mobile games like Honor of Kings and Call of Duty: Mobile, the closure of the Montreal branch may reflect the fact that the attempt to transition from being a "mobile gaming giant" to a "console/PC player" is proving more difficult than anticipated.
Increased security pressures and stricter investment regulations between China and the West may lead Tencent to derisking its operations by shifting its budget back to its remaining US studios (LA and Seattle) for greater management flexibility.
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Source: Kotaku
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