{"id":116408,"date":"2017-09-06T06:07:03","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T10:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=116408"},"modified":"2017-09-06T06:07:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T10:07:03","slug":"video-game-giant-ubisoft-announces-780-million-quebec-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/09\/06\/video-game-giant-ubisoft-announces-780-million-quebec-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"Video game giant Ubisoft announces $780 million Quebec expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Wikimedia<\/a>
Ubisoft Logo (Wikimedia Commons, Fair Use<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL — Twenty years after coming to\u00a0Quebec, French video game giant Ubisoft announced plans Tuesday to invest $780 million in the province by 2027, hire more than 1,000 people and open two new studios.<\/p>\n

Ubisoft’s expansion includes a $135-million investment to open a studio in early 2018 in Saguenay, about 250 kilometres north of\u00a0Quebec\u00a0City, said co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot.<\/p>\n

The company also plans to add 675 jobs in Montreal and another 200 in\u00a0Quebec\u00a0City, while opening a fourth bureau in the province in an undisclosed location.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expertise of Ubisoft’s\u00a0Quebec\u00a0studios is one of the motors of the company’s growth,\u201d Guillemot said.<\/p>\n

He said the company is looking to hire 125 people within five years to work in the Saguenay office.<\/p>\n

Ubisoft’s studios in the province have developed some of the company’s famous brands including video games Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry.<\/p>\n

The company, which currently has 3,600 employees in Montreal and\u00a0Quebec\u00a0City, has taken advantage of the\u00a0Quebec\u00a0government’s subsidy program for multimedia firms.<\/p>\n

Up to 37.5 per cent of admissible salary expenses is eligible for reimbursement with tax dollars.<\/p>\n

For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, Ubisoft received $90 million from\u00a0Quebec’s coffers to subsidize employee salaries.<\/p>\n

Quebec\u00a0Premier Philippe Couillard was on hand for the announcement and said the tax credit program is worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTax credits on 1,000 jobs created by Ubisoft represents an expense of roughly $160 million,\u201d Couillard said. \u201cIt’s a choice we have made.\u201d<\/p>\n

The province’s subsidy program has been criticized by non-multimedia companies in the province who aren’t offered similar tax credits but who are competing for the same talent.<\/p>\n

Guillemot said Ubisoft’s\u00a0Quebec\u00a0investment has totalled $3.5 billion since 1997 and will increase to $9 billion at the end of its expansion plan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL — Twenty years after coming to\u00a0Quebec, French video game giant Ubisoft announced plans Tuesday to invest $780 million in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":116412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18,16],"tags":[23076,23077],"class_list":["post-116408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-ubisoft","tag-video-game-giant","mauthors-julien-arsenault","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}