Last time, the Quebecois broadsheet La Presse reported that Ubisoft Montreal was to receive around C$ 8 million in tax credits from the Canadian government for the studio's expansion in the area. That grant has just been upped to C$ 19 million.

Now with 1,600 employees, Ubisoft Montreal is just 200 employees shy of Electronic Arts' Canada studios, the largest development studio to date. In ties with the establishment of a computer-animation studio (and all the talk about an Assassin's Creed movie), the Montreal studio is expected to increase its employee count to 3,000 (500 for the digital cinema studio) by 2013.

Yves Guillemot, president of French publisher Ubisoft, explained:

In 1997 Ubisoft made the decision to wager on Quebec's immense creative potential. Ten years later, the Montreal studio has been the driving force behind the conception and development of legendary brands, such as Prince of Persia, and the greatly anticipated Assassin's Creed. The Montreal studio was recently ranked fourth development studio in the world by Game Informer, one of the most influential magazines in the game industry. Today, we are pursuing our strategy centered on innovation by increasing investments in our creative teams based in Quebec.