Assassins Creed 2 Glyphs

Forget Rocket Richard or poutine, the pride of Montreal may just be a video game featuring a medieval-era assassin.

Next week, Ubisoft releases Assassin’s Creed 2, the sequel to the 2007 title that smashed the company’s expectations and became the game industry’s fastest-selling original property in years. This time, it’s a different story. While Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is expected to be the biggest selling game of the season, Ubisoft’s could be a close second. For Canadians, Assassins Creed might be more compelling given that the game was developed here.

The lion’s share of both Assassin’s Creed titles was designed at Ubisoft Montreal, the French company’s biggest and most important branch. With 2,000 employees, most of which are designers, it’s one of the largest games studios in the world — a status it expects to claim outright by 2013 after the planned addition of 1,000 more employees.

Aside from Assassin’s Creed, the studio also handles many of Ubisoft’s flagship franchises, including all of the Tom Clancy games. The next one, Splinter Cell: Conviction — slated for a February release — is also a guaranteed hit.

The studio’s size and importance, spurred by more than $19 million in investment from the Quebec government, has over the past decade transformed Montreal into a hotbed of games development. Other global game publishers, including Electronic Arts and Eidos, have in recent years set up shop in the city, resulting in brisk competition that has created thousands of jobs.