THQ opening Montreal studio

Montreal's generous tax incentives have lured yet one more gaming company to the Great White North. THQ announced today that it would establish a new game development studio in the Quebec's largest city, joining other publishers and developers, such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Eidos, and most recently, Funcom. THQ expects the new studio will open its doors in mid-2010 and plans to staff up with 400 people over the next five years.

According to the publisher, THQ Montreal will be the largest in its stable of development outfits. The studio will be headed up by Dave Gatchel, who previously served as general manager at THQ's Paradigm Entertainment. Notably, Paradigm Entertainment was one of five studios shut down by THQ in November 2008. The move came as part of THQ's efforts to cut costs by $220 million and trim companywide headcount by 24 percent.

THQ plans for its new Montreal studio to release its first titles in 2013. No details on the project were revealed, though THQ did say that it was hiring in a variety of positions along the product pipeline, including design, engineering, art, content and technology development, quality assurance, and localization.

The studio will primarily undertake creating games for the core market, as well as aid development on other THQ titles. As part of its aforementioned restructuring efforts, THQ said in late 2008 that it would be halving its yearly core game slate, dropping the number of titles aimed at that segment of the market to one or two. The move came as part of the publisher's efforts to realign its product portfolio under the precept of quality over quantity.