Anyone in Montreal interested in working at CyberConnect2 ?

Blond

http://www.cc2.co.jp/montreal/

Apparently, seems like their studio is set and ready to rumble, on Gaspé street near Rosemont subway.:D

To be clear, they're right behind Ubisoft's main building and I even think they are sharing the same since Ubi has an office located separately on 5455. There's also the FrameStore VFX studio at the place, it's crazy really.

I'm a huge fan of these people, especially since most of their work features hands-on crazy full keyframe animation. Plus it's a foreigh japanese studio and I'm really wondering how these people kinda work and create their pipelne and such....

You guys think not knowing japanese is a huge problem?
I mean, I'd learn it if they'd give me time to learn i...

Magihat

Blond said:

You guys think not knowing japanese is a huge problem?

From the website:

• Languages Spoken: English, French. Japanese would be a plus!

I think it is pretty safe to say that any company that have a main office in another country it would be a plus to know that country's language for various reasons but not, as you put it, a huge problem.

JacqueChoi

I like where I'm at and not interested in changing jobs. I'm really curious to see who actually goes there and what kind of games they'll make.

I remember reading in their announcement mission statement that they would be bringing Japanese dev culture and management. I hope that doesn't mean crunch hell.

Jonas Ronnegard

I usually wouldn't say anything negative about a studio but having worked for many studios especially japanese ones, the only one I wouldn't return to would be cc2, the montreal one might be different but bringing japanese dev culture doesn't sound like a good start.

JacqueChoi

I think it is pretty safe to say that any company that have a main office in another country it would be a plus to know that country's language for various reasons but not, as you put it, a huge problem.

My Company's main office is in Japan and not many here (if any?) know a lick of japanese.

I think it would be a huge problem if you did TBH.

Anyone that's ever worked on a large team understands that good managers are essentially "Shit Umbrellas".


Trust me when I say, you do NOT want to be the direct line of communication with the head office.

Magihat

JacqueChoi said:

Anyone that's ever worked on a large team understands that good managers are essentially "Shit Umbrellas".
Trust me when I say, you do NOT want to be the direct line of communication with the head office.

From an employees view I can totally see that but I was thinking more of if it would be seen as a positive in terms of hireability i.e. from the company's point of view. I guess maybe a reason why they would want you to know Japanese is so they can circumvent the, as you put it, "shit umbrellas" if they wish? 

thomasp

JacqueChoi said:

My Company's main office is in Japan and not many here (if any?) know a lick of japanese.


Trust me when I say, you do NOT want to be the direct line of communication with the head office.

but isn't eidos originally a british/european company that happened to be taken over by square a few years ago? might be entirely different when it's a newly setup studio without baggage.

and yeah, definitely - dealing with head office (or even just people high up who like to bypass the org chart) can be a time consuming and conflicting experience, not recommended for somebody who at the end of the day is expected to actually 'make something'. best left to the email warriors.

Blond

Ok here's the thing; the head of Cyberconnect (not the Montreal studio but the CEO of the whole company) came to our school and invited us to apply if we were interested to work in the new Mtl studio. The guy was extremely cool and seemed passionate about everything of what they're doing. No need to say a huge part of the audience was sold and are interested to work there.

Personally, the projects they're working on, as an animator perspective do hype me but I really am kind of scared about the things I've heard in JP game studios...Like I don't fear doing overtime during crunches, I've already dealt with that in the past but that was during the end of production and lasted a few weeks. 

What I fear is to be doing 10-12 hours all year long because I know these people have an insane amount of work to do in limited time. Hopefully, they're a bit more loose on this track...
Working on the Final Fantasy Remake as they stated would be a dream for me though I doubt they would hire a junior.
Need to step my game up...

Edit: ALos, a few peeps were concerned about the durability and stability of the studios in the North American market. Of course, they're subsidized by the government but still, I fear a lack of understanding of the terrain can make the whole be gone after 2-4 years. That would be sad...

And I'm really expecting a good salary range for people. I know the anime industry underpays their artist in JP but that's not common in game is it?

Jonas Ronnegard

Well I will probably not say much more openly, but the main reason they were called a black company here in Japan was because of their use of students there was even schools that told their students to ignore offers from this company. Really don't go into this company expecting a good salary, but of course if it's more a standalone company then it might be different, I wouldn't want to be the one to try it out though.

thomasp

a few years back when i looked into moving there, montreal and good salaries did not seem to correlate. perhaps it's different now with more competition and all?