Overview
Founded in 1997 in Montréal, Ubisoft Montréal is the first production studio opened by Ubisoft in Canada. Located in the Mile End district, it began with a team of around fifty people in an environment where Québec’s video game industry was still relatively undeveloped. Within a few years, the studio moved from relatively modest productions to international projects and became one of the group’s main creative and production centers.
Its history is closely tied to several franchises that have shaped Ubisoft. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time helped establish the studio’s reputation in the early 2000s. This experience then paved the way for original projects developed in Montréal, including Assassin’s Creed, whose first installment was released in 2007. Watch Dogs and For Honor were also created at the studio, while its teams took charge of or contributed to series such as Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.
This accumulation of major properties should not, however, reduce Ubisoft Montréal to a simple list of franchises. The studio is distinguished above all by its transformation. A relatively compact team became an organization capable of leading productions involving several hundred specialists and later working with numerous other Ubisoft studios. This evolution mirrors that of the games themselves: adventures primarily conceived as finished products during the 2000s, large open worlds during the following decade, and then experiences developed and maintained over several years.
Rainbow Six Siege and For Honor particularly illustrate this latest stage. Ubisoft Montréal had to complement traditional development skills with practices related to online operations, continuous balancing, data and community feedback. The studio did not abandon large narrative productions or open worlds; instead, it learned to make several forms of development coexist.
Since 2025, its organization has also become part of Ubisoft’s broader transformation. The Montréal teams working on Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six are integrated into Vantage Studios, the structure responsible for those three franchises. Ubisoft Montréal remains an identifiable studio, but some of its most important brands are now developed within an even more directly shared framework involving several locations.
History
1997: establishing Ubisoft in Québec
Ubisoft Montréal opened its doors in 1997. At the time, the studio represented the group’s first production operation in Canada. The initial team consisted of around fifty people, often young and still with limited professional experience in a Québec video game industry that was itself only beginning to emerge.
This situation played an important role in the culture of the early years. The studio had to build its teams quickly, develop expertise locally and learn to take responsibility for increasingly ambitious projects. Montréal was not yet one of the world’s major development hubs that it would later become, and Ubisoft directly contributed to the acceleration of that ecosystem.
The first productions allowed the team to gain experience, but the real change in scale came in the early 2000s. Ubisoft Montréal was entrusted with projects capable of giving the studio a much stronger identity within the group.
Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia: the first breakthrough
In 2002, Ubisoft Montréal developed Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. The game introduced Sam Fisher in a stealth experience where lighting, visibility, gadgets and observation played a central role. Above all, it demonstrated that a still relatively young team could lead a new property intended for the international market.
The following year, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time became another decisive step. Ubisoft had regained the Prince of Persia property and entrusted the Montréal studio with creating a new interpretation of the series. The project combined acrobatic movement, time manipulation, combat and storytelling within an adventure built around the fluidity of the character and his environment.
These productions changed the way Ubisoft Montréal was perceived. The studio was no longer simply a Canadian operation contributing to the group’s catalogue: it demonstrated its ability to rebuild an existing property, create new systems and develop games that could later serve as references for other teams.
This period also provided a human and technical foundation for later projects. Several developers who worked on Splinter Cell or Prince of Persia later participated in other major studio productions. The experience accumulated around movement, stealth, environments and the construction of 3D adventures therefore became reusable knowledge rather than expertise isolated within each game.
Assassin’s Creed and the creation of new franchises
The next major change came with Assassin’s Creed, created within Ubisoft Montréal and released in 2007. This time, the studio moved from reinterpreting Prince of Persia to creating a new universe. The game retained the importance placed on movement through space but integrated it into open cities, a historical structure and climbing systems that made extensive use of architecture.
The series developed rapidly. Ubisoft Montréal led several installments that established its main foundations before other studios, particularly Ubisoft Québec, also took leadership roles on certain projects. Assassin’s Creed thus became an early example of an important evolution within Ubisoft: a franchise born in a particular studio could gradually become a production shared across the group.
At the same time, the studio deepened its experience with open worlds through Far Cry 2, followed by various installments in the series. The aim was not to reproduce the structure of Assassin’s Creed exactly. Far Cry environments placed greater emphasis on systems, combat and improvisation, but they strengthened the Montréal team’s experience in constructing large spaces capable of offering several approaches to the player.
In 2014, Watch Dogs introduced another original property developed in Montréal. This time, the contemporary connected city became a direct component of gameplay through the ability to interact with its digital infrastructure. In 2017, For Honor explored another direction with a close-combat system built around positioning, guard management and clashes between several warrior cultures.
These projects illustrate a period during which Ubisoft Montréal could simultaneously extend established franchises and propose new large-scale properties. They also contributed to the considerable growth of the studio’s organization and made productions increasingly interdependent with other Ubisoft teams.
From major projects to continuous development
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, released in 2015, represented a different kind of transformation. From its conception, the Ubisoft Montréal team approached the game as a multiplayer experience intended to be supported over the long term rather than as a title whose development would essentially end after release.
This decision changed the relationship between production and audience. Gameplay data, community feedback, balancing issues and the regular addition of content became permanent elements of development. The team needed to be able to modify an experience already used daily while preserving the systems on which its balance depended.
For Honor adopted a similar long-term support model after release. Both games helped establish skills within the studio that differed from those required for primarily solo adventures: online infrastructure, operations, security, balancing and regular content production became disciplines alongside the studio’s historical expertise in programming, animation, design and artistic creation.
This period did not completely replace the previous model. Ubisoft Montréal continued to participate in major productions from historic franchises, but its role gradually changed. A major game was no longer necessarily developed by an isolated team in a single building. Productions became distributed across several studios sharing technologies, content and responsibilities.
From a major studio to an international production hub
As it developed, Ubisoft Montréal became an important point of connection within Ubisoft’s North American network. The studios in Québec City, Toronto, Saguenay, Sherbrooke and Winnipeg developed their own areas of expertise, while major productions increasingly involved several locations.
In 2021, Ubisoft announced, for example, a new collaborative organization between Montréal and Québec for the future of Assassin’s Creed. The franchise born in Montréal was no longer conceived simply as a succession of games whose responsibility passed from one studio to another. Direction, production and development could be distributed among different teams.
This evolution was reinforced in 2023 when Montréal became the coordination hub for Ubisoft’s North American production operations. The studio’s role then extended further beyond the creation of a catalogue that would belong exclusively to it: its experience was also used to organize productions spread across a much larger network.
A new stage began in 2025 with the launch of Vantage Studios. This structure brings together teams working on Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six across several studios, including Montréal, Québec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona and Sofia. In 2026, Vantage became the first of the new Creative Houses around which Ubisoft reorganized its portfolio.
For Ubisoft Montréal, this change actually extends a transformation that had been underway for a long time. Several of the franchises that defined the studio were born or grew within its walls, but their development now depends on distributed networks of talent. Montréal’s role is therefore no longer simply to be “the studio that makes Assassin’s Creed” or “the studio that makes Rainbow Six”: it participates in structures where creation, production and operation are shared among several teams.
What sets it apart
Turning character abilities into ways of exploring the world
An important continuity runs through several periods of Ubisoft Montréal: movement and environment are often designed together. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time builds its levels around the Prince’s acrobatic abilities. Assassin’s Creed transfers this relationship into much more open cities where façades, rooftops and monuments become directly traversable.
This evolution is not simply a transition from linear levels to larger maps. It changes the way the player reads space. Architecture can be viewed not only as scenery, but as a network of possible routes, heights, obstacles or advantageous positions.
Other productions use this idea differently. Far Cry places greater emphasis on freedom of approach within large environments, while Watch Dogs adds a digital layer to physical space that allows the player to act on certain infrastructures. The mechanics change, but the world is still often designed as something the player can understand and then use.
An ability to create and then share franchises
Ubisoft Montréal has created or deeply shaped several major properties, but their evolution shows that the studio does not operate as their exclusive guardian. Assassin’s Creed is the clearest example: born in Montréal, the franchise was later developed under the leadership of different teams while maintaining an overall continuity.
This circulation also exists in other productions. Major Ubisoft games frequently rely on co-development, with a lead team supported by several specialized studios. Montréal can lead one project and contribute to another.
This organization requires expertise that goes beyond designing a game. Technologies must be shared, content distributed, a coherent vision maintained and several teams enabled to work on the same production despite geographical distance. The growth of Ubisoft’s Canadian network gradually made this coordination capability an important part of Montréal’s role.
Designing games that can change after release
Rainbow Six Siege represents another lasting transformation. From the beginning, the project was designed to be maintained for several years, with gameplay adjustments and new content added after launch. This approach requires the studio to treat release not as the end of production, but as the beginning of another phase.
The experience accumulated through Siege and For Honor developed practices related to supporting a continuously active game: observing behavior, adjusting balance, modifying existing systems and introducing new possibilities without breaking what already works.
This capability differs from the traditional production of a sequel. Teams work continuously on the same foundation, with a community immediately using each change. Development therefore becomes a permanent dialogue between initial design and real-world use.
Ubisoft Montréal has thus moved through several production models without being limited to one: solo adventure games, large open worlds, competitive experiences and long-term supported productions all coexist within its history.
A structural role within Québec’s ecosystem
The creation of Ubisoft Montréal in 1997 also had an impact extending beyond its own catalogue. When the studio opened, Québec’s video game industry was still limited. Its growth helped create a significant concentration of local expertise and accompanied the arrival or expansion of other companies in the sector.
Over the years, Ubisoft’s Canadian ecosystem itself expanded with new studios in Québec City, Toronto, Saguenay, Winnipeg and Sherbrooke. Montréal should not be confused with these different entities, which have their own teams and productions, but its establishment represents the historical starting point of Ubisoft’s presence in Canada.
The studio also maintains links with education, research and the local video game community. This dimension is not separate from its industrial history: large-scale production requires a sustainable pool of programmers, artists, designers, animators and technical specialists.
Ubisoft Montréal can therefore be understood both as a creator of games and as one of the actors that helped transform Montréal and Québec into an important international center for video game development.
Good to know
- Ubisoft Montréal was founded in 1997 and is Ubisoft’s first Canadian studio.
- The initial team consisted of around fifty people and settled in Montréal’s Mile End district.
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, released in 2002, was one of the first productions to establish the studio’s international reputation.
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, developed in Montréal and released in 2003, represented an important step before the team began creating new properties.
- Assassin’s Creed originated at Ubisoft Montréal, with its first installment released in 2007.
- The studio also created Watch Dogs and For Honor and played a major role in the Far Cry and Rainbow Six series.
- Rainbow Six Siege was designed from the beginning as a multiplayer experience supported over the long term, permanently changing the studio’s production practices.
- From 2021 onward, the future of Assassin’s Creed became increasingly organized around collaboration between several studios rather than a succession of isolated productions.
- Since 2025, the Montréal teams working on Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six have been part of Vantage Studios, the Creative House responsible for those three franchises.