UbiNord Opening: A Monday Like No Other

When your job is creating video games, Monday mornings aren’t so hard.

When you are passionate about your job, you actually look forward to starting the week!

But that Monday, the mood was even more positive than usual. The grey sky and the cold rain couldn’t dampen our spirits. A wind of change was about to blow on Ubisoft Québec, sending part of our team up North.

At UbiNord. A second workspace in the neighborhood, just across the street.

But First, Some Background

In April 2016, Ubisoft Québec opened its brand new studio at 585 Charest Est, an open and friendly space to welcome about 400 team members.

Less than a year later, in February 2017, two new stories were added to make room for the growing team and welcome about 500 creators.

But the studio just kept on growing. And thanks to Assassin’s Creed Odyssey‘s worldwide success, the studio still has the wind in its sails.

As announced two years ago as part of its most important expansion plan in the province of Québec, Ubisoft will create 200 new jobs in Quebec City by 2027, investing an additional 140 million dollars in the region.

But we need room to welcome all these talented people!

The solution?

Invest $3 million to open a second site of about 30,000 square feet. This new workspace is in addition to the 70,000 square feet already occupied by our team, totalizing over 100,000 square feet in the Saint-Roch neighborhood. That’s a lot!

UbiNord, a Mirror of Our Neighborhood

Saint-Roch is a mixture of contemporary constructions and historical buildings.

It also offers a perfect balance between urban life and green spaces. It’s a neighborhood that helped Quebec City become a worldwide hub for video games. It’s a diverse and eclectic ecosystem where you can find trendy restaurants, inspiring cultural venues, festive bars and cool cafés. It’s also the offsetting for a beautiful collective solidarity.

Saint-Roch is all that, and more.

With UbiNord, we want to make room for the Saint-Roch we love. Our interior work environment had to be a mirror of the outside environment.

With over 500 team members, Ubisoft has an impact on the neighborhood. And inversely, Saint-Roch inspires us. It’s a collaboration. A discussion. A relationship that has lasted for almost 15 years now.

With this idea in mind, combined with the creativity of our team, we created a work environment that will inspire our developers to create game experiences and outstanding worlds for years to come.

A Week of Celebrations

At Ubisoft Québec, we always go big.

After that first morning where we traded the usual coffee for mimosas, we opened the gates of UbiNord to the families of team members who were moving to the new space. Due to the confidentiality of our projects, we can rarely open our doors to guests, so this was the perfect occasion to let our developers show off their work environment.

Later in the week, the hundreds of team members who still work at 585 Charest Est, now baptized UbiSud, were given the chance to tour the new space.

Now that the big move is over and that the celebrations are winding down, it’s time to get to work and keep on developing the future of gaming!

Cheers!