TiMi Montreal, the studio founded by former Assassin’s Creed creative director Ashraf Ismail, has been shut down by its parent company Tencent. Ismail announced the studio’s opening in 2021, under Tencent’s TiMi Studio Group banner. Reportedly, Ismail’s team was working on a new original AAA open-world game for consoles and PC. However, the shutdown means that TiMi Montreal’s unannounced game will never see the light of day.
According to Game File, rumors about Timi Montreal’s impending demise were circulating for weeks without confirmation. That changed when Timi Montreal developers began sharing the news online about the fate of their studio.
On his LinkedIn page, senior gameplay programmer Alvaro Fernandez Luzuriaga said, “I am genuinely heartbroken that the public will never get to experience what this team was capable of producing.” Luzuriaga’s message was subsequently removed from his page.
Ismail stepped down from his position at Ubisoft in 2020 amid allegations of infidelity. There are no indications that those allegations played in any role in the end of his current job. This closure only affects this studio, and doesn’t extend to the remaining development teams under TiMi Studio Group.
Wildlight Entertainment–the studio behind Highguard–was reportedly backed by Tencent through TiMi Studio Group before laying off most of its developers following the disappointing response to its signature game. Tencent has invested in a lot of video game studios around the world, and also formed a joint partnership with Ubisoft to produce the Assassin’s Creed franchise going forward. The Far Cry and Rainbow Six franchises are also included in that shared subsidy.