Krafton, the developer and publisher behind PUBG, has officially opened its first Canadian studio in Montreal.
Head of studio Patrik Méthé is among the team’s Ubisoft alumni and will be leading the studio, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz.

Building a team

Currently, a game adaptation of The Bird That Drinks Tears is being developed by the studio. The title comes from a series of novels by Yeongdo Lee in South Korea.

The Montreal team comprises 12 staff members at present, with hopes to reach 150 employees within three years. Among the current members are producer Benoit Frappier, project manager Kate Lee, technology director Martin Paradis, game director Frédéric Duroc and art director Kwangjae Son.

Between them, they have been involved in games such as Rainbow Six, Watch Dogs, Prince of Persia and more. Lee is also already working on concept trailers for the upcoming The Bird That Drinks Tears.

"We're starting a new studio, with a new IP that is not known in the Western world," said Méthé, whose role officially began last October.

"Even without our studio being announced, we were able to attract multiple top talent in two months because the adventure itself is so exciting that a lot of people want to work here.

"The first game we're going to deliver needs to be top quality. We're not going to compete against the biggest games out there. We're not going to put fillers in this game.

"It's going be all about each moment being meaningful, so that by the end of the game, when the players will put down their controller, they will be like, 'Okay, wow, I just had a never-seen-before experience – what's next?'"

Krafton's PUBG Mobile reached $9 billion in revenue in December 2022, with 1.1 billion installs across the App Store and Google Play Store.