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Borderlands developer Gearbox Software has opened a new studio in Quebec City.
This Canadian branch of Gearbox is currently hiring for “its inaugural title growing to full AAA production capability through 2016.”
Randy Pitchford, head of Gearbox, stated that
“We are fortunate that there is a lot of demand on us to deliver our brand of interactive entertainment within the powerful franchises we have at Gearbox Software and the challenge for us is growing to meet this demand. As part of our strategy we have already successfully built an expanded all-new headquarters in Frisco, Texas. We now look ahead to another key and exciting step which is our commitment towards our all-new Gearbox Studio Quebec where we strive to team up with some incredible talent in the world of video game development outside of Texas to help us build fun and exciting video games within our tent-pole brands.”
Sebastien Caisse will head up the studio in Quebec. He has worked with both Sony and Microsoft prior as Business Development Manager at Squeeze Animation. Pierre-Andre Dery will be Co-Studio Head and Studio Creative Director. Previously Art Director at Activision, where he worked on Skylanders and The Amazing Spider-Man, he has also worked on the visual development of more than 30 console titles at Volta, notably contributing to Farcry, Deus Ex and World of Warcraft.
“Thanks to Randy and his gifted team in Texas, we are designing a truly unique studio from the ground up in order to enhance Gearbox’s ability to entertain the world with best-selling, larger-than-life experiences. To be able work for such a storied independent game studio as Gearbox is a great honor,” says Gearbox Studio Quebec’s Co-Studio Head Sebastien Caisse.
Expanding is usually a good thing as long as it’s done timely and you don’t over expand too quickly. One point which will need to be monitored is that with a former member of the Amazing Spiderman game team, which ended up being a very bad game and flopped in sales, is now the co-studio head of this new studio. We’ll have to watch how this turns out, but Gearbox expanding can’t be a bad thing out of the gate especially with games like Borderlands and Battleborn upcoming.
Gearbox Studio Quebec is the first of its kind to be formed by Gearbox Software, whose HQ has been based in Texas for more than 16 years.
Agencies/Canadajournal
