The mesozoic era is divided into three: the Triassic, the Jurassic and the Cretaceous. It is also nicknamed the era of dinosaurs. And as Hollywood has done repeatedly since 1993, it was 230 million years in the past, that the Montreal video game studio Ludia has to ensure its future.
It’s a pivotal moment for Ludia. The Montreal studio found Quebec and Canadian owners last March, three and a half years after having passed under American control. In September 2021, the Californian mobile video game creator Jam City acquired Ludia for $ 165 million.
The return to Quebec Giron was done in March, when investors who include the FTQ Solidarity Fund, Investissement Québec, BDC Capital, EDC and the National Bank proposed to buy the studio as such, its employees, as well as its existing game catalog. Including Jurassic World : The Game et Jurassic World Alive.
Photo Robert Skinner, Archives La Presse
The founder and chairman of the board of directors of Ludia, Alexandre Thabet
In the process, Jimmy Gendron went from managing director and executive vice-president to President and CEO of Ludia. He repatriated the founder of the studio Alexandre Thabet, who took the head of the board of directors.
Jurassic World : Renaissance
The moment chosen for the transaction could not fall better. Ludia proceeds these days to an important update of her two flagship titles inspired by the Jurassic world, to incorporate them elements of the film Jurassic World : Renaissancewho took the poster at the cinema on Wednesday July 2.
“It will bring new players, that’s for sure,” says The press The executive producer for Ludia Romain Godart, about the film that the Universal studio has just put in the bill.
It will have an important effect on our games. It is also a moment to chat with Apple and Google, who will want to put the brand Jurassic World in front of [dans leurs boutiques de jeux mobiles]because they too will want to take advantage of that.
Romain Godart, executive producer for Ludia, about the release of the film Jurassic World : Renaissance
The scenario of a film in the Jurassic Park series is written almost by itself, since the premise does not change almost ever: there is always at least a dinosaur which decides to tackle humans, and this dinosaur is always more or less close in the family tree of the sauropsidae Tyrannosaurus rexthe largest carnivore of his time.
In Jurassic World : Renaissanceit’s a Distortus rex which appears and which becomes one of the two antagonists at the heart of history (with a small “H”). It is a mutant tyrannosaurus.
Naturally, it had to be integrated into Ludia Games, which may not be as simple as it looks, even if the chief host Hilary Boarman suggests that the initial motion capture was rather fun.
“We have tried to extract the most universal information that we have been able to, but they don’t want to say too much, so we have to rely on common sense, but what is big sense, when we have to animate a mutant dinosaur?” she wonders, philosopher. We then fall back on science and evolution, but it is fiction, so we try to have pleasure during creation. »»
Evolution, this inaccurate science
No doubt the pleasure is double in Ludia, these days.
The video game industry has been rather gloomy for a year, and the Montreal sector has gone through a few layoffs and studios closings. Meanwhile, Ludia added 20 new positions to the 120 already occupied in Montreal.
He had to rebuild some of his divisions to reclaim his independence.
Hiring could continue. His games occupy some 3.5 million players each month, which allowed him to generate 1.3 billion in total income since its creation in 2007.
Ludia has other projects for the future. “It is too early to say what creature it will be about, but it is one of the reasons behind our independence found: we are entering a new phase of growth and there will be new games,” says Romain Godart.
Obviously, Ludia wants to avoid suffering the same fate as the dinosaurs …
