It will take only about a year for Warner Bros. Games to reach the halfway mark of its five-year recruitment goal. The WB Games studio that was established in Montreal late last year now has 60 employees, and there are plans to hire another 100 by December.
"We're in full recruitment mode," said Martin Carrier, the Montreal studio head. Carrier gave a tour of the company's second temporary office in Place Dupuis, on de Maisonneuve Blvd. E., at the corner of St. Hubert St. (after having recently moved from the firm's first office in Old Montreal). In November, the studio will move to its permanent digs, which will take up 65,000 square feet in an adjacent tower in the Place Dupuis office building.
Warner, one of the world's fastest-growing gaming companies, has produced several well-known games, such as Lord of the Rings Aragorn's Quest, the Lego games, and several Batman games.
Montreal will be the company's only studio that will focus entirely on games that can be downloaded, either for consoles, computers, smartphones or tablets.
Many of the games will be free to play. Martin Tremblay, the president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, said the online games will enable Warner to appeal to a worldwide audience, since 95 per cent of gamers in Asia use games that are free to play.
While many of the games may be free for players, they're still big money makers, Tremblay explained, because each game usually has paid features that start as low as a few pennies.
"We bought the studio that made Dungeons and Dragons, and Lord of the Rings, and about 18 months ago, we put the games up online and made them free to play," Tremblay said.
"We were able to triple our revenue."
The company would not reveal which specific titles it will be developing. Carrier said there will be two free-toplay games for computers, and one game for consoles, which will also be free on Xbox Live Arcade and Sony PlayStation Networks. The games will take between a year and 18 months to complete.
Tremblay added the Montreal studio will also develop free and mobile versions of existing games in order to keep gamers connected to their games at all times.
Reid Schneider, the studio's executive producer, said with recent technological innovations with new phones and tablets, the quality of mobile games has improved greatly. As a result, many now rival the quality of traditional games for consoles or computers.
"We can also take more creative risks and test them with our customers," Schneider said. "We'll know immediately what's resonating with our public, and we can make changes."
Warner isn't the only gaming company hiring in Montreal. Gaming companies THQ and Electronic Arts are also expanding.