14 DAY TRIAL // A report in the Canadian newspaper La Presse Affaires says that video game publisher Square Enix is negotiating with the Quebec local government for a funding agreement which will see the local Eidos Montreal studio grow to 680 full-time employees in a few years.
Square Enix seems to be interested to get an investment from the state of about 2.05 million dollars in order to begin the expansion of the studio.
100 new jobs will be created before the end of 2012 and another 250 will be added until 2015.
It seems that expansion has become more attractive to Square Enix than creating a whole new studio because of the generous tax credits that Quebec is ready to provide, covering about 40 percent of production costs, a better deal than offered in Ontario or British Columbia.
Square Enix has not commented on the possible deal but back in 2007, when Eidos Montreal was created, its leading executive, Stephane D'Astous, had stated that he was interested in a studio that would specialize in creating AAA titles on longer development schedules and using smaller than usual teams.
Eidos Montreal is responsible for the creation of the recently launched Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a game that has received very good reviews from games sites and has also reportedly sold very well in the two weeks since it was launched.
It would make sense for Eidos Montreal to keep working on the franchise and develop a new game based on the same universe, one that maybe acts as a sequel to the original Deus Ex and eliminates the timeline seen in Invisible War.
The addition of more employees could also mean that Eidos Montreal will also begin working on another series, maybe even a new intellectual property, but official announcements will probably only be made once the project is well on its way.