Toronto, February 2020 – Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) is happy to welcome a new member, NetEase Games. ESAC members include Canada’s top video game developers, publishers, and distributors. As the voice of Canada’s video game industry, ESAC serves its membership by engaging with government, public relations, and policy stakeholders across the country and abroad. ESAC is proud of the role it plays in supporting the growth of Canada’s video game industry; and in November 2019, the Association welcomed one of the largest Chinese online games developers.
NetEase Games has established a new studio in Montréal which will be focused on video game research and development. NetEase is currently looking to staff up its new team in the heart of one of Canada’s largest technical talent pools. NetEase chose to open its studio in Montréal because of the city’s depth of human resources, technology resources and its video game development ecosystem.
The studio sits at the heart of downtown Montreal, where highly skilled professionals in the city’s gaming industry and graduates from higher institutions are gathered.
“Our Montréal studio is an important part of our globalisation strategy, and is an extension of our R&D capabitilies on a global scale,” said Hu Zhipeng, vice-president of NetEase. “We are pleased to be a member of ESAC and the partnership will further support our efforts in being closer to our friends and partners in the Canadian video game sector.”
NetEase Games in Montréal welcomes talent that are creative, driven and passionate about games. It anticipates to hiring a dozen of employees by the end of 2020 and a list of available career opportunities is available on the NetEase Games Careers page.
“We are closely following the development of new technology, possibilities for the expansion of our industry as well as companies which are drawn to our policies which support growth. NetEase Game is well-known for its online games. At ESAC, we are very pleased to have NetEase join Canada’s thriving ecosystem.” said Jayson Hilchie, President & CEO, ESAC. “Our strong video game development ecosystem, diverse talent and continued government support, make Canada a healthy and prosperous market which lends itself well to the publishing and distribution of video games.”
About NetEase Games
NetEase Games is the online games division of NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES), developing and operating some of the most popular PC-client and mobile games in markets including China and Japan. As one of the world’s largest incubators of quality online game content, NetEase Games is dedicated to supporting the growth of innovative studios around the globe and growing an international presence along the way. To complement its self-developed games and world-class R&D capabilities, NetEase Games also partners with other industry leaders including Blizzard Entertainment, Mojang AB (a Microsoft subsidiary) and other global game developers to operate some of the most popular international online games in China. For more information, please visit neteasegames.com.
About ESAC
ESAC is the national voice of the video game industry in Canada. We work for our members – Activision Blizzard, Glu, EA, Gameloft, Ubisoft, Kabam, Other Ocean Interactive, Ludia, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Relic Entertainment, Solutions 2 Go, WB Games, Square Enix, Take 2 Interactive, Codename Entertainment, Certain Affinity and NetEase games – to ensure legal, regulatory and public affairs environments are favourable to long-term business development. For more information, visit theESA.Ca.
