Square Enix in Montreal
polycounter lvl 13
Welcome aboard to a new big studio in Montreal : Square Enix! 
New logo : http://instagr.am/p/VJva5/
Announcement picture : http://yfrog.com/nyfx0pj
150 jobs will be created. Plus, 100 more for Eidos Montreal!
http://www.vg247.com/2011/11/21/eidos-montreal-to-create-100-new-jobs/
First title to announced : Hitman
New logo : http://instagr.am/p/VJva5/
Announcement picture : http://yfrog.com/nyfx0pj
150 jobs will be created. Plus, 100 more for Eidos Montreal!
http://www.vg247.com/2011/11/21/eidos-montreal-to-create-100-new-jobs/
First title to announced : Hitman
Replies
http://square-enix-montreal.com/
By the way, where do you work?
150 jobs or so. Woot!
Seems like Square is on the up and up... i think.
Hopefully it's ramped up properly, and well run.
also hope it's run well, any polycounters in there yet?
Nonetheless, awesome to hear another great studio opening in Canada. Good luck to everyone applying!!
I'd be interested if it wasn't for the fact that I found Montreal so prejudice to non-french speaking people like me...
Man they treated me like crap -____-
Lol really? I've kinda picked up that a decent number of people speak only french there, but isn't there a massive amount of english speaking people there as well? Like maybe... 50% or more?
Bad news if not
5+ years of experience to work in Canada from the UK?
I just started my first industry job, in Montreal. I'm from the US and I just got a BFA in May .
Compared to English and other languages, French is actually a minority in Montreal (albeit a large minority, something like 48-49%). I agree, some of the French-speaking folk are incredibly rude towards non-french speakers, and I cannot tolerate that one bit. I'm French myself, but because I speak fluent english, I've had many french-speaking people go berserk on me for not speaking french, only to answer back to them in their own tongue.
It's not that bad, honestly. That's just an example of a one or two-time thing that happened a while back. Most people are just fine with english speakers.
We brought over most of its management from the Norwegian office, and have carefully ramped up people that fit in with their development culture (very pragmatic, and largely multicultural).
In all fairness to the development culture here in Montreal, I honestly believe it has less to do with the "French Culture", and more to do with the Elephant in the room (Ubisoft). I know EA in Burnaby had a very similar effect to the game development culture in the greater Vancouver area.
I really hope Squeenix does it right. Gets the right management in place, and makes it an awesome place for everyone to work.
For English-speaking people, I guess MOST of us ((game developer) in Montreal all know how to speak in English fluently. And yeah, I don't agree French people to hate other peoples because of their language (and yeah, I speak French 95% of my time). When I came to the Ubisoft studio, my teacher told us that they take people from all around the world, including people who can only speak their respective language, if they do the job well. And yeah, we have some Polycounters from Montreal too, but never made any meeting yet?
This isn't false. Many of my english friends are mocked and laughed at for their effort. It's not all as bad as some make it sound, though. Not everyone is like that!
WHAT?!
Do you realize that is the exact polar opposite of what happens most of the time? Unless you're speaking about Quebec, and the other-regions from Montreal, in which case, it's understandably so. Them town folks live in towns for a reason.
The only instance people will give your grief for you lack of French is if you've been living here for a decade, and can only speak Engrish with a few words here and there in French, which again, is understandable. I mean you're living a country all this time without even picking up "Qu'elle belle fesse" is really odd, wouldn't you say.
I'm a Montrealer, and a french one.
I don't mind english people in my city. Not at all. I speak both english and french.
What most of us have a problem with is people that lives in Montreal for years, without trying to learn words in french.
If I lived in the states, I'd "learn"/ Speak english.
Don't block yourself from working here because of language.
It's fun to learn new languages anyway.
your definitely missing the point i was trying to make.
As a visitor; I felt like I was victimized by being an outsider. People seemed to have more of an issue that I wasn't FROM there, rather than me being non fluent.
I'm not trying to derail this thread or attack anyone. Just saying my experience. I think someone else said Quebec is known for this type of behavior so maybe I just came across some very 'Quebecian' people
see, Ive always regretted not trying harder in grade/high school to learn french. Ive applied to a bunch of montreal studios, even after hearing the bad stuff. But if i ever got a job there, id definitely take classes to learn it.
Maybe the native french speakers dont mean to do it, but it just comes across that way to those who are new? New to a city, if people are rude, or not as nice as you hope, it hits you harder than if people in your own town are rude. It might not even be them being rude, as it is just how they come across to an outside?
That being said, I don't know if it's the reason for many people to behave like that.
I guess some people feel that they need to protect french by screaming at everything in english.
But I do believe it's more towards Montrealers that doesn't want to learn french more than tourists and workers from US, UK, etc. Montreal is really multi-ethnical and open.
But there is stupid people everywhere :P
Only 1 rule here : Don't say anything bad about our Montreal Canadiens
So... is my wife wearing a San Jose Sharks jersey a bad thing? Or is it a non-issue because the likelihood of the 2 teams meeting is fairly slim?
Haha, wearing jerseys is fine :poly142:
Just don't support the Bruins!
Even (3d) school is. I'm currently in class and it's all english. Do I get all angry? of course not
This is what i was worried about... seems like speaking crappy french might do you worse than just speaking decent english :P
Still going to learn the language, and still stoked to be moving (30 degrees to 4 degrees, heck yeah ^^)
@Boyso: Guess coming in with a Maple Leafs jersey would be a bad move haha
When I go to the US, I get laughed at for my accent as well. As long as you try to learn, people will help you
If you manage to get in any of the companies, they generally pay for you to have french classes :P.