Even as early as July 5, 2007, Microsoft announced that it was extending north of Redmond and into Canada. At that time S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft, indicated that the new Microsoft Canada Development Centre would be a nucleus of top talent, and that it would house no less than the next generation of leading software developers. The Redmond giant managed to deliver on its initial plans, which indicated a fall 2008 inauguration for the center. As of September 10, 2008, the Microsoft Canada Development Centre is open for business.

“The Microsoft Canada Development Centre is located in Richmond, British Columbia. Its offices are situated in two buildings totaling 73,000 square feet in the Crestwood Corporate Centre, one of the leading business parks in the Greater Vancouver Area. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre first opened its doors in July 2007 with 20 employees. Today, the Centre employs more than 300 people from 45 different countries who speak 15 languages,” Microsoft revealed.

The software giant revealed that the first Canadian development center's 300 strong workforce is made up of the best software developers in the world. Designed to operate as centers located in North Carolina, Ireland, Denmark and Israel, MCDC will be involved in the development of over 50% of Microsoft's products, including the Windows operating system, the Office platform, but also Windows Mobile, Zune and the Xbox 360.

“Type of work undertaken at the Microsoft Canada Development Centre includes: Software Development; Software Testing; Program Management; User Interface Design; System Architecture; System Specifications Development; Development of System Tool and IT Infrastructure Development. Complete list of products software engineers work on at the Microsoft Canada Development Centre: Zune, Xbox 360, Vista, Office, Ad Platform, AD Search, Unified Communications, Exchange Server, Visual Studios, Silverlight,” Microsoft added.