Warner Bros. has selected Montreal, Canada as home for its newest gaming studio, one that will work—at least partly—on churning out titles from WB subsidiary DC Comics.
Quebec will be the recipient of a $7.5 million grant from Investissement Quebec and Warner Bros will benefit from the province’s standard 37.5 percent tax-break on all jobs, according to the Montreal Gazette. The studio will set up shop in an as-of-yet-undetermined part of the city. Warner Bros. said the studio would create 300 jobs by 2015, and indeed a small variety of positions are already listed on the WB career page.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment President Martin Tremblay called the deal, “… the best offer on the table on both the talent and financial incentives.”
Quebec Premier Jean Charest was also pleased, stating, “With the credibility of Warner Bros., this confirms the position of Quebec as one of the major world capitals in the gaming industry.”
Quebec has invested more than $100.0 million in the videogame development sector over the last ten years according to the province’s Economic Development Minister Clement Gignac.
Economist David Descoteaux from the Montreal Economic Institute offered a different take on the announcement, telling the Gazette, “You have to keep in mind the government has to take this money from somewhere; it takes it from taxpayers. Taxpayers would have spent this money and stimulated jobs elsewhere.”
