Tencent Closes TiMi Montreal Studio?

Unfortunately, we're hearing news of yet another development studio that has reportedly fallen victim to closures and layoffs: this time we're talking about the Montreal offices of TiMi Group, an imprint owned by the Chinese company Tencent.

TiMi Montreal was founded in 2021 and since then had been working on a multi-platform AAA Open World title, of which nothing has ever been shown; it had brought together some former Ubisoft employees, veterans of the Assassin's Creed series, including Ashraf Ismail, creative director of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. On paper, therefore, all the potential was there.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla (PS5)

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Now, however, Game File reports some testimonies of the silent and sudden closure of the studio: "It truly breaks my heart that the public will never get to experience what this team was capable of producing - writes, for example, a laid-off programmer on his LinkedIn profile - TiMi Montreal was made up of truly talented people and working with them was a privilege: the level of skill and dedication of this team was something special."

Currently, however, the news of the closure has not been confirmed [nor denied] by official sources, so we are forced to take it as a rumor. In 2023, Tencent had already closed a studio within the TiMi group: we are talking about Team Kaiju, which among others included veterans of well-known brands such as Halo and Battlefield.