The video game industry has been expanding in Sherbrooke for years, as the city aims to become a technological hub in Quebec, and now gaming enthusiasts can take a peak behind the doors of the region’s biggest studios during the first ever video game week.
Sherbrooke Innopole, a paramunicipal economic development organization, brought together several events normally scattered throughout the year and instead jammed them into an action-packed week for people interested in learning about video games and the industry.
“The goal here is to put the focus on the gaming industry in Sherbrooke. We want Sherbrooke to be the third biggest place for gaming in Quebec after Montreal and Quebec City,” said Marc-Henri Faure, director of business services and information technology at Sherbrooke Innopole.
The organization partnered with Erupting Avocado, Lucid Dreams Studio, Misstic Studio, Golem Labs, as well as two industry powerhouses Eidos-Sherbrooke and Ubisoft Sherbrooke. Ubisoft recently opened in the city and they intend to open an in-house studio by 2023.
Eidos, which set up its studio in 2020, already has over 30 employees, according to Faure, while Ubisoft has 14 employees working from home in Sherbrooke. But this is only the start, he explained, as the city plans to ramp up its campaign to attract gaming talent to Sherbrooke.