You may recall that last December publisher THQ announced its intention to leverage the fantastic video game development pool in Montreal with a brand-new studio (and the help of the Canadian government). Today, THQ sent word that it's finally opened the Montreal studio.
Moreover, the company proudly informed us that they've signed notable games designer Patrice Désilets, who's known for serving as the creative director on top Ubisoft games like the Assassin's Creed franchise and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. "THQ has the exclusive option to have Désilets work from THQ’s new Montreal studio beginning summer 2011. When he joins the studio, Désilets will be charged with the hiring of a new team that will develop new intellectual properties for THQ," THQ stated.
The man behind Assassin's, now spearheading original IP at THQ.
“We expect calendar 2011 to be a watershed year for THQ, and adding developers like Patrice helps ensure our focus on new IP and great games is charted by leading industry artists,” said Danny Bilson, THQ Executive Vice President, Core Games, adding, "Simply put, we can’t wait for Patrice to join THQ. Patrice brings a passion for games rich with action-packed sequences, gripping characters and cinematic flair, and we’re all looking forward to having him and his newly formed team develop an all new franchise with us.”
Adding a designer of Patrice's caliber is definitely a big deal for THQ and another positive sign of the publisher's commitment to improving their portfolio's quality. Prior to the announcement, IndustryGamers spoke on the phone with an excited Bilson about building up the Core business with the talent pool in Montreal. Bilson also gave us some hints that Patrice's first project will likely fall in his genre of expertise (third-person action/adventure).
Here's the full interview:
IndustryGamers: I wanted to start out by getting your reflection on the signing of Patrice, what it means for THQ, and the strategy going forward as you look to ramp up the new Montreal studio.
Danny Bilson: It’s really part of our overall strategy that we’ve been working on for probably a year, which is to be a talent first company. The only place you get great games is from great game makers. Patrice is the latest of those to join us. I think we may have started with Itagaki-san and the former Team Ninja coming on board, and we continued that through a bunch of other relationships and another one we're going to announce any minute. Having always been in the entertainment business - whether it was film or games or anything else - great content comes from talent. It doesn’t come from a process, it certainly doesn’t come from a spreadsheet, and it doesn’t come from just throwing money at something. It really comes from people who are geniuses at what they do, who work really hard, and have honed their craft, and I know the only way for us to really grow is to make the best most competitive games in the industry with some of the best, most competitive people. Patrice is going to sort of found the “A-team” with that studio and build an original IP for us there and build out a team and that will be the core team at THQ Montreal. I don’t think it’s an overstatement that if I pick up essentially the Assassin’s Creed lead and the team that he recruits, that’ll be a world class team, as good as any and certainly one of the finest teams in Montreal, if not the finest. What better way to start the studio and mitigate risk, if you will?
IG: Had he already left Ubisoft, or did you sort of lure him away?
DB: He’d already left when we met him. We were introduced to him by his agent at CAA.
IG: When you talk about mitigating risk, it does help to have someone of his caliber, someone who knows how to create great games. The Assassin’s Creed games and the Prince of Persia games are top sellers for Ubisoft, and pretty high quality. At the same time, any time you create a new IP, it involves a lot of risk...
Bilson is hugely excited about Patrice joining THQ
DB: I don’t really see it that way, James. I think the world has changed. I think old IP is risky. I think that iterating over and over again on the same thing without a new position and a new experience for the user is deadly these days. People's money is too tight and they want new experiences. Even if you see one of the biggest franchises like Call of Duty, they find a unique position. I think if you look at their game this year, it’s a very different point of view than last year’s game, and that’s within a franchise. Outside of that, I look at things like Red Dead Redemption, where that would be a completely unexpected hit for sort of what would have been common sense before. Even a western, that’s pretty radical. I’m really a believer in that people are looking for new experiences, and that new experiences made to the highest quality are going to win. Old is old and if I’ve only got sixty dollars to spend, the consumer may say 'Well I’ve played that already. I’d rather spend my sixty dollars on something else.' It’s not the world where someone goes into the shop and buys three games anymore. I think they’ve got to pick one and I believe unique experiences are going to be really important going forward. I don’t see it as risky, personally. I think risky is doing the same thing that other guys are doing or the same thing you did before.
IG: Can you give us any hint whatsoever as to the kind of game Patrice will be working on or what genre it will be in?
DB: Well, I’m sure it will be in the genre he’s an expert in. I’m pretty sure of that and that’s all I know. To tell you the truth, he and I haven’t had that conversation yet because he’s on a non-compete [clause] until next May. As soon as that’s over with, we’re going to get really busy on what that is. But I’m sure it’s in the format and genre he has honed his expertise in.
IG: I know from the original Montreal studio announcement back in December of last year you were quoted as saying the first title from the studio would not be out until around 2013. Is that still the case, that we won’t see this game from Patrice until 2013?
DB: You know, to make a triple-A game, for the first iteration, it takes about three years. We’ll pull that in as much as possible, but we’re not going to compromise quality, and we have to live with those expectations, that some of these new agreements we’re doing to start original IP and to really build it out well to compete with the best games in the world are going to take three years. That’s just a reality we deal with. On that point, one of the reasons Montreal is such an advantage for us is the cost savings we’re getting there to run a three-year burn on a team. It’s very, very expensive to launch a new game. I mean, to your point, where the risk is in new IP, part of it is in content creation and creative development. The thirty-seven and a half cents on every dollar that we’re getting back from the government in Quebec gives us tremendous advantage to give the gamers this humongous experience - because that’s what we need to do to compete. That’s what I think mitigates the risk and makes it possible.
IG: I know you’re very big on transmedia; you’ve been championing the idea of transmedia for a long time and how to leverage that with all of THQ’s games, so I’m assuming whatever this new IP is, it’s going to get the multimedia treatment.
DB: Everything does. Pretty much in our big expensive titles, if it’s a fiction based game as opposed to a sports game, we’re looking to build it out from the outset to sort of build a really robust world that can be accessed by other media than just games. That’s part of our strategy and how to make our games important – it's to really build great worlds.
