Quantic Dream opens new Montreal studio headed by former Deus Ex boss

Quantic Dream has opened a new development studio in Montreal Canada, headed up by industry veteran Stéphane D’Astous.

General manager D’Astous, who started his games industry career with Ubisoft in 2003 before establishing and leading Deus Ex maker Eidos Montreal, is joined at Quantic Dream Montreal by gameplay director Yohan Cazaux.

Prior to joining Quantic Dream, Cazaux spent almost 14 years at Ubisoft, where he worked as a designer on Assassin’s Creed games Black Flag, Origins and Valhalla, serving as a lead on the most recent series entry.

Before the Montreal studio’s opening, Quantic Dream had operated a single studio based in Paris, France, where it made The Nomad Soul, Fahrenheit, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human.

Announcing the new studio, D’Astous said Quantic Dream’s Paris and Montreal teams will work “hand in hand” on the same projects rather than on separate games, with Montreal “responsible for developing the game mechanics and all the gameplay”.

While home working is currently the norm, Quantic Dream Montreal is based in a renovated building located in the Atwater Avenue district. It is currently looking to recruit programmers, designers and animators.

Having ended a decade-long exclusive working relationship with Sony in 2019, Quantic Dream released former PlayStation-only games Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls for PC in 2020.

The studio is targeting multiplatform product releases for its future, unannounced games.

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