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Krafton taps Ubisoft vets for new Montreal studio

Krafton taps Ubisoft vets for new Montreal studio

Korea's Krafton has set up a brand new studio in Montreal, Canada.

As reported by GI.biz, the imaginatively-named Krafton Montreal is being headed up by Patrik Méthé (pictured), an 18-year veteran of Ubisoft's studio in the city. During his time at the French games giant, he has worked on the Far Cry, Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six franchises.

Méthé is joined by fellow Ubisoft vets producer Benoit Frappier, game director Frédéric Duroc and tech director Martin Paradis. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds alum Kate Lee has come on board as project manager, as has veteran Krafton art director Kwangjae Son. Right now, the studio is only 12-people strong but there are hopes to reach 150 members of staff within three years.

Krafton Montreal is working on a video game adaptation of the South Korean fantasy novel series The Bird That Drinks Tears.

"The most important thing for Krafton was to find the right team to bring this IP to the console market in a top-quality game," Méthé said.

"And most of [Montreal's developers] work in the console market, so the fit was perfect. We have a team in place where we can attract a lot of top talent."

He continued: "We're starting a new studio, with a new IP that is not known in the Western world – some people find that very exciting."

"Where I started, I was not aware of the IP, but I was able to get my hands on some of the content, I read the novels, and I was like, 'Wow, this is a universe that's unique, that I've never seen anywhere else'… before I was in games I was very, very involved in the tabletop RPG space, I had a store selling Dungeons and Dragons, Magic: The Gathering as so on, and I still play things like this. Now, to have the opportunity to take a brand new fantasy world and bring it to life, it's a dream come true. I couldn't say no."


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.