Bethesda opens new studio in Montreal

Bethesda Game Studios has expanded to Canada, the company announced today. The Maryland-based company has opened an additional studio in Montreal, its first satellite office.

The Fallout and The Elder Scrolls developer's Montreal outpost will "expand [Bethesda's] development capabilities in console, PC, and mobile gaming," according to the announcement.

The studio is already home to a team of 40, and is headed up by Yves Lachance, who previously worked on Fallout Shelter. Lachance previously served as studio head of Behaviour Interactive.

Fallout Shelter was Bethesda's first venture into mobile gaming, and the free-to-play iOS and Android management sim has proven to be a popular title.

For Bethesda to continue to pursue mobile, then, is not surprising, but don't expect the Montréal location to make portable experiences the core of its development profile. Bethesda Softworks vice president of PR and marketing Pete Hines discussed Bethesda's mobile future in an interview with IGN back in July.

"This isn't the start of a formula where every time we make a game we need to do a mobile game," he said.

"If we just start saying yes [to more mobile games], we start getting into this thing where eight games will fail and two will succeed."

The Montreal studio will be working on console titles, too, of course, but as for which platforms or games it's currently developing, that remains to be seen.

Follow along as we play Fallout 4