Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Dragon Age: Inquisition walked away with the top prizes at the Canadian Video Game Awards on Sunday, but it sounds like Ubisoft and Bioware are about to have a bit more competition in the future. Bethesda Game Studios – the Maryland developer responsible for hits like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4 – has announced that it’s opening a new office in Montreal, expanding its operations beyond the US to establish itself in one of the top game development hubs in Canada.

“We’ve worked with some very talented developers in Montreal for a long time, and decided it was time to open a studio there,” Bethesda Game Director and Executive Producer Todd Howard said via press release. “It’s exciting to think about the new games we’ll be building together.”

Yves Lachance will serve as Studio Director for Bethesda Game Studios Montreal, which already has 40 employees and is currently hiring more. The Montreal studio will be working on Bethesda’s mobile, console, and PC titles, though at the moment it’s unclear if it will be developing its own projects or simply contributing to the existing Bethesda portfolio. Either way, it’s great news for the games industry in Canada. Fallout 4 and Skyrim stand as two of the most beloved video games in recent years, and Bethesda’s presence will only solidify Canada’s position as one of the top game development countries in the world. The Montreal studio should provide more employment opportunities for Canadian game developers and will hopefully lead to even more fantastic games in the future.

We’re happy to welcome Bethesda Game Studios to Canada. It’ll be exciting to see how the Montreal studio evolves moving forward.