Ontario grant has Ubisoft seeking staff
Company hopes to more than double its workforce to 800 by the year 2020
Five years after Francebased Ubisoft Entertainment SA opened the doors to its Toronto studio, the video game maker is gearing up to go on another hiring spree in Ontario’s capital.
The first took place during its early years, when Ubisoft ballooned its staff from just four people in early 2010 to 250 by the spring of 2012, relocating 20 people from its flagship Canadian studio in Montreal and recruiting the rest, to design, create and finally release Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist in August 2013.
Since then, the outlet has added another hundred employees — and local brass doesn’t plan to stop there. While the broader economy braces for tame growth, Ubisoft aspires to more than double its Toronto workforce to 800 by 2020, assuring that it won’t just stay in the city, but it hopes to thrive there, too.
“We’re really proud of what we did in the last five years,” Alex Parizeau, the managing director at Ubisoft Toronto and one of the studio’s Montreal transplants, said in an interview. In addition to leading the development of Blacklist, which has fallen short of Ubisoft’s sales targets despite being lauded by critics, the Toronto office sup- ported the creation of two other games, Assassin’s Creed Unity and Far Cry 4.
“We’ve got a ton of stuff planned for the next five ( years), but we need the best people.”
Currently, more than 90 per cent of the studio’s 350 employees contribute directly to the gamemaking process in roles such as animator, designer, programmer and audio engineer. The others are in support positions. It strives to preserve the 90: 10 ratio during each growth spurt, a quest that has taken its recruiters to far- flung places and yielded a diverse staff who speak at least 35 different native languages. While Parizeau estimates one- third of its employees are foreign workers, he says many end up settling in the city, adding that “a lot of people are going through the P. R. ( Permanent Residence) process right now.”
The rate of expansion will depend on workflow, Parizeau says. He declined to comment on upcoming releases, but did say the studio’s contributions to Far Cry 4 “went so well that it established us as a really big partner on the Far Cry brand going forward.” Still, the game maker is not without a lucrative incentive to continue bulking up its workforce — and to do so sooner rather than later.
In 2009, the Ontario government courted Ubisoft to set up shop in the province by pledging a grant of up to $ 263 million over 10 years until 2020. Funds aren’t stashed in a company bank account or doled out evenly each year: Money is disbursed only after Ubisoft presents proof of eligible spending, says Andrew Forgione, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure.
Also, the agreement, which subjects the studio to regular financial inspections, excludes the company from claiming the Ontario Interactive Digital Media tax credits during the decade.
In an emailed statement, Forgione said the grant “supports a total investment of $ 806 million by Ubisoft,” adding that the company is “progressing well” so far and is “on track” to meet its hiring goal.
To do so, Parizeau is relying heavily on deepening talent pools of students from local game- design programs.
“Now that we have people in place who know the culture at the studio, who are driving the projects that we have here in development, we’re able to target more junior people,” Parizeau said.
One of these alliances is with Oakville, Ont.- based Sheridan College, which welcomed the first cohort of students into its new four- year Bachelor of Game Design program in September 2013. Ubisoft Toronto employees have helped craft the curriculum, some have hosted master classes in animation and a handful currently sit on the school’s professional advisory board, among other initiatives.
Now that we have people in place who know the culture at the studio ... we’re able to target more junior people.