Eidos Interactive Corporation (

trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

: Eidos-Montréal) is a Canadian

video game developer A video game developer is a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large business with em ...

based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

and part of

Embracer Group Embracer Group AB (formerly Nordic Games Licensing AB and THQ Nordic AB) is a Swedish video game and media holding company based in Karlstad. The company comprises 8 operative groups: Amplifier Game Invest, CDE Entertainment, Coffee Stain Studi ...

. The studio was founded by Stéphane D'Astous in 2007 under SCi Entertainment. It became part of Square Enix Europe in 2009 and CDE Entertainment in 2022.

History

Eidos Interactive Eidos Interactive Limited (formerly Domark Limited) was a British video game publisher based in Wimbledon, London. Among its franchises were '' Championship Manager'', '' Deus Ex'', ''Hitman'', '' Thief'' and ''Tomb Raider''. Domark was founded ...

announced plans to open a

-based subsidiary studio in February 2007. Eidos Interactive Corp. was incorporated in March 2007. Eidos-Montréal formally opened with

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Stéphane D'Astous on 26 November 2007. According to D'Astous, unlike other video game development studios, Eidos-Montréal's development cycle as characterized by smaller teams (totalling to 350) working over a longer period. The same year as its founding, the studio announced to work on a ''

Deus Ex ''Deus Ex'' is a series of cyberpunk role-playing video games, set during the mid 21st century. Focusing on the conflict between secretive factions who wish to control the world by proxy, and the effects of transhumanistic attitudes and technol ...

'' project. In May 2009, the studio announced to work on the fourth installment of the ''Thief'' series. D'Astous resigned from Eidos-Montréal on 19 July 2013, citing irreconcilable differences with parent company Square Enix. In a 2022 interview, he retroactively called Eidos group a "trainwreck in slow motion", blaming London and Japan headquarters for failing to utilize the full potential of the studios. On 4 March 2014, Square Enix announced that 27 employees were laid off from Eidos-Montréal. On 26 January 2017, Square Enix announced a partnership with

Marvel Entertainment Marvel Entertainment, LLC (formerly Marvel Entertainment, Inc. and Marvel Enterprises, Inc.) was an American entertainment company founded in June 1998 and based in New York City, formed by the merger of #Marvel Entertainment Group, Marvel Ente ...

to create multiple video games based on Marvel properties, the first of which was announced as ''

Avengers Avenger(s) or The Avenger(s) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Marvel Comics universe * Avengers (comics), a team of superheroes **Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe), a central team of protagonist superheroes of "The Infinity Sag ...

'', based on the comics of the same name, which would be developed by

Crystal Dynamics Crystal Dynamics, Inc. is an American video game developer based in San Mateo, California. The studio is best known for its games in the ''Tomb Raider'', '' Legacy of Kain'', and '' Gex'' series. Madeline Canepa, Judy Lange, and Dave Morse ...

and Eidos Montreal. In May 2018, the studio had over 500 employees. In April 2018, YouTube journalist George Weidman (Super Bunnyhop) reported on a cancelled video game codenamed "Fantasy Project W" that was in development in 2012. Anfossi said to

PCGamesN ''PCGamesN'' is a British website with articles about PC gaming and hardware. History Parent company Network N was founded by James Binns (formerly of Future Publishing) in late May 2012. ''PCGamesN'' launched the following month. PCGamesN ...

in May that he unable to comment; he found the video "very well done" and "very funny to watch" and explained that, within the video game industry, projects are often started but eventually cancelled. In 2019, Eidos-Shanghai became part of Eidos-Montréal, a studio established in 2008 to handle

outsourcing Outsourcing is a business practice in which companies use external providers to carry out business processes that would otherwise be handled internally. Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another ...

for Eidos. In June 2020, Square Enix announced new research and development studio Eidos-Sherbrooke, led by Julien Bouvrais. It was envisioned to take advantage of the nearby

Université de Sherbrooke The Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS; Quebec English, English: ''University of Sherbrooke'') is a French-language Public university, public research university in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada, with a second campus in Longueuil, a suburb on the Mont ...

and

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

and bring in new computing technology from these schools into their games. It was said to initially operate remotely, with plans move to a permanent location in southern Quebec in 2021 and to grow from 20 to 100 staff. On 13 June 2021, during a panel for E3 2021, it was announced that the company would be developing a game based on ''Guardians of the Galaxy''. In May 2022, Square Enix reached an agreement with

to purchase the studio and other assets of Square Enix Europe. During the announcement of this acquisition, it was revealed that Eidos had several projects in development, all using

Unreal Engine 5 Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) is the latest version of Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. It was revealed in May 2020 and officially released in April 2022. Unreal Engine 5 includes multiple upgrades and new features, including Nanite, a system that ...

. On 20 May 2022, Embracer Group (before the acquisition was complete) expressed interest in sequels, remakes and remasters in established franchises of the studio such as ''Deus Ex'' and ''Thief''. The acquisition was completed on 26 August 2022, with the assets being held under CDE Entertainment. In November 2022, Eidos-Shanghai was detached from Eidos-Montréal and moved to Gearbox Entertainment, another Embracer Group company, as Gearbox Studio Shanghai. Eidos-Sherbrooke was closed in late January 2023. In November 2022,

Jason Schreier Jason Schreier (born May 10, 1987) is an American journalist and author who primarily covers the video game industry. He worked as a news reporter for ''Kotaku'' from 2011 to 2020 and was recognized for several Investigative journalism, investig ...

of ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

'' reported that Eidos-Montréal was in the "very very early" development stages of a new ''Deus Ex'' game. He also reported they were working in multiple projects to be published by

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

. In January 2024, he reported that

had cancelled the new ''Deus Ex'' game, which had been in development for two years, as well as laid off an unspecified amount of employees. Eidos-Montréal then confirmed that 97 people were laid off, and in March 2025, laid off more 75 employees. In June 2024, it was revealed that Eidos-Montréal are supporting development for the upcoming ''

Fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...

''. In June 2025, the studio announced to be a co-developer for '' Grounded 2'' alongside

Obsidian Entertainment Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California and part of Xbox Game Studios. It was founded in June 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios, by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquh ...

. Both announcements were made during the annual Xbox Games Showcase events by

Microsoft Gaming Microsoft Gaming is an American multinational video game and digital entertainment division of Microsoft based in Redmond, Washington, established in 2022. Its five development and publishing labels consist of: Xbox Game Studios, Bethesda Soft ...

Technology

On 4 December 2014, Eidos revealed their proprietary technology called Dawn Engine which was to be used in future ''Deus Ex'' projects, first of which was later revealed to be '' Deus Ex: Mankind Divided''. It is based on a heavily modified version of

IO Interactive IO Interactive A/S (IOI) is a Danish video game developer and publisher based in Copenhagen, best known for creating and developing the ''Hitman'' and '' Kane and Lynch'' franchises. IO Interactive's most recent game is '' Hitman 3'', which was ...

's Glacier 2, which has its roots in '' Hitman: Absolution.'' The engine was created after developers at Eidos-Montréal "found that

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...

creative vision was somehow limited" by relying on existing engines. The graphics engine has been "almost completely" rewritten. This was done to "fully leverage the power offered by the PC and eighth-gen">Eighth generation of video game consoles">eighth-genconsoles". The creation of Dawn was challenging even for Eidos-Montréal's most experienced staff. The engine was later used for 2021's '' Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy''. Dawn Engine features improved conversation system and cutscenes compared to Glacier 2. Built on an "entity system", Dawn allows designers to create new behaviours without the assistance of programmers. Hair technology is an improved version of

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains significant operations in Austin, Texas. AMD is a hardware and fabless company that de ...

TressFX AMD TressFX is a software library which provides for advanced simulation and rendering of hair, fur, and grass to be processed by the GPU. The initial library was written to perform well on AMD's GCN-based products. Version 3 was released on J ...

, which has been developed by the in-house

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

team ''Labs''. Dawn features systems for volumetric lighting and air density, as well as support for dense indoor and outdoor areas, and many dynamic objects. Not all objects are rendered at the same time, the engine makes use of

Umbra The umbra, penumbra and antumbra are three distinct parts of a shadow, created by any light source after impinging on an opaque object of lesser size. In cases of equal or smaller impinging objects, only an umbra and penumba are generated. As ...

occlusion culling. With ''Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy'', ray tracing and DLSS support was added, as well as working in-game mirrors. Eidos-Montréal subsequently abandoned work with the Dawn Engine after 2022, adopting

for their ongoing work to "focus on content" rather than technical hurdles of developing a game and its engine simultaneously. With the foundation of Eidos-Sherbrooke, research and development work was mostly offloaded to that studio including Eidos-Labs department.

Games developed

Awards

Eidos-Montréal was recognized as one of the Best Places to Work by GamesIndustry.biz, and Montréal's Top Employers by Canada's Top 100 Employers competition.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eidos-Montreal 2007 establishments in Quebec 2022 mergers and acquisitions Canadian companies established in 2007 Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Montreal Eidos Embracer Group Square Enix Video game companies established in 2007 Video game companies of Canada Video game development companies