Ubisoft Montreal
The establishment of Ubisoft Montreal is considered to have significant impact on Montreal. The Mile End area over the next several years transformed from a low-rent area to a commercial hub with new businesses, stores, restaurants and other attractions for the young workforce. For the city overall, Ubisoft Montreal was the first major video game studio and helped to establish its position as a creative city. Several other publishers, including Electronic Arts, Eidos Interactive, THQ and Warner Bros., established studios in Montreal following Ubisoft, with the Quebec and federal governments continuity to offer subsidiary programs to support high-tech job creation. In exchange, the studio has spent up to in the province of Quebec, and with their parent publisher, helped to open Ubisoft Quebec in Quebec City in 2005 and Ubisoft Saguenay in Saguenay in 2018 to help support Ubisoft Montreal's efforts, using similar tax incentives from the providence to help found these.
Montreal International Games Summit
The Montreal International Games Summit (MIGS), also known as le Sommet International du jeu de Montréal (SIJM), is a conference on video games. The first edition was held in 2004 and usually takes place in November at le Palais des Congrès de Montréal. The summit was founded in order to meet the needs of the rough 9000 video game workers in Quebec. The mission of the summit is to expand the exposure of the video game community and industry in Quebec as well as develop the expertise of the Quebec video game industry. MIGS is currently the leading professional gaming summit of the East Coast, and is arguably the largest game development event in Canada. The overall aims of MIGS are to promote, train, network, and hire potential players in the gaming industry. Professionals attending the summit partake in lectures and presentations largely oriented around how to better specific aspects of the industry, such as art and VFX, business, and design. Currently, MIGS has partnered with many of the leading electronic and game development companies in Canada, including Ubisoft and Warner Bros. Games. The Montreal International Gaming Summit is networked similarly to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, using the same application in order to facilitate interaction between industry players and their associates. It was only in 2008, during the fifth summit, did MIGS become an event that was open to the public. 2013 marked the tenth annual Montreal International Gaming Summit.