TiMi Montreal has reportedly been shuttered by Tencent. Game File broke the news, citing undisclosed sources who have said they had been aware for weeks that a “closure was coming”.
Although several former employees of the studio previously posted about the closure on LinkedIn, those posts have either been deleted or hidden, making them unavailable for public view.
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In one of the new unavailable posts, a programmer wrote, “I am genuinely heartbroken that the public will never get to experience what this team was capable of producing”.
Responding to the post, another former employee wrote, “This team was exceptional not just in talent, but also in camaraderie. It’s one of those experiences that sticks with you for a very long time, and I feel privileged to have been a part of it.”
TiMi Montreal was founded in 2021 and was led by Ashraf Ismail, former Assassin’s Creed creative director. Ismail joined TiMi Montreal as a consulting creative director after being fired by Ubisoft Montreal in 2020, following an investigation related to misconduct. The studio had yet to release a game before its shuttering.
TiMi Montreal joins another Tencent-backed studio that was shut down in 2023, Team Kajiu. NetEase, another Chinese gaming giant, has also shuttered several studios it backed, including Bad Brain Game Studios, and others. Many of the NetEase-backed studios were shuttered without releasing a single game.
Game File sent a request for comment to Tencent and TiMi. None of them provided comments on the matter. The details of the game that TiMi Montreal was working on before its shuttering remain a mystery. However, when the studio was formed, it was on a mission to “create AAA open world multi-player games”.
GameBaba Universe is saddened by the news and wishes everyone impacted the best of luck in their next endeavor.
