By Distributel
A lot of indie games are made in Canada—but did you know about these AAA games developed right here in the Great White North?
Developer: Eidos Montreal
Location: Montreal
There aren’t a lot of great Marvel games out there, but Eidos Montreal made one of the few when they made Guardians of the Galaxy.
Developer: BioWare
Location: Edmonton
Who would have guessed that Edmonton is known for hockey and . . . video games? BioWare, founded by a couple of medical doctors, gave us one of the most incredible sci-fi trilogies of all time. And then they did some other games that are less memorable. And then they remastered the whole Mass Effect trilogy, which is great.
Developer: Behaviour Interactive
Location: Montreal
Have you ever wanted to be a summer camp teen running away from a slasher bad guy such as Jason or Freddie? Well, in Dead by Daylight, that’s exactly what you can do. Oh, and you can be the bad guy too if you want. Next Halloween, instead of watching a Halloween marathon, why not recreate it in a game?
Developer: Motive
Location: Montreal
The original Dead Space series was made at EA Redwood Shores, which is in California. When that folded, they brought in Montreal developer Motive to make the 2023 remake of Dead Space. If you’re only familiar with the original series, it’s basically the same except the protagonist is now voiced and there’s a lot more gore.
Developers: Ubisoft Montreal & Ubisoft Toronto
Location: Montreal & Toronto
That’s right, one of the biggest franchises in gaming is a Canadian product, and it’s made in Toronto and Montreal—but mostly Montreal. After the original German studio was bought by Ubisoft, game development went to Montreal. Toronto started sharing responsibility with Far Cry 5 and ultimately took over for Far Cry 6. And because we know you’re wondering, Far Cry: Blood Dragon, Far Cry: Primal, and Far Cry: New Dawn were all made in Montreal. Thanks, Montreal!
Developer: EA Vancouver
Location: Vancouver
The final instalment of the FIFA series (wow, who would have thought we’d be writing that?) was developed in Vancouver (and Romania).
Developer: Blackbird Interactive
Location: Vancouver
Better known for the Homeworld series, Vancouver developer Blackbird Interactive helped Mojang with Minecraft Legends, the latest spinoff of the Minecraft series. If you’ve only ever played the base game, imagine a game where you’re defending an overworld full of friendly villages from a monster invasion, but in between invasions you have to build defences.
Developer: Motive
Location: Montreal
Who doesn’t like a good space combat game? In Star Wars: Squadrons, you get to pilot X-Wings and TIE fighters and immerse yourself in the Star Wars universe. There’s multiplayer and single player, but the campaign is honestly pretty light. But how much story do you really need? You get to fly a TIE fighter!
Developer: Ubisoft Toronto
Location: Toronto
Watch Dogs: Legion takes place in a futuristic London (the UK one, not the Canadian one). It has the same gameplay loop as the previous games in the series, so players will shoot, hack, and drive their way through the game where they play as DedSec, a hacker group trying to clear their name after a series of terroristic bombings. A cool thing about the game is you can recruit nearly any NPC to help you out.