Tencent Closes TiMi Montreal Studio Before Releasing a Single Game
There’s a specific kind of heartbreak that comes with a cancelled video game. It’s the quiet erasure of thousands of hours of passion. Lines of code, character concepts, and sprawling worlds simply vanish into the digital ether. No player will ever get to experience them.
That’s the heavy reality facing the developers at TiMi Montreal today. Tencent has officially pulled the plug on the Canadian studio.
Five Years of Silence
Founded back in July 2021, TiMi Montreal was supposed to be a heavy hitter. The mandate was clear and highly ambitious.
They were tasked with building massive, big-budget AAA open-world games across multiple platforms. It was a golden era of expansion. In 2022, they brought in Ashraf Ismail, the former creative director behind Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The pedigree was certainly there.
Yet, over nearly five years of operations, the studio never actually announced a single project. Not even a teaser trailer.
The Human Toll Behind the Screen
The writing had apparently been on the wall for a few weeks. Anonymous sources, according to Game File, hinted at the impending closure, but the confirmation still hit hard. Former employees have taken to LinkedIn to share their grief.
Programmer Álvaro Fernandez Luzuriaga captured the mood perfectly. He expressed genuine heartbreak that the public will never see what this talented team was capable of producing. Working on a game for years only to have it shelved before anyone can play it is devastating. It leaves a massive creative void.
Another Tencent story I was chasing: TiMi Montreal, founded in 2021 with hopes to make a AAA open-world game, has closed
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) February 22, 2026
Extends a brutal stretch of shutdowns. And another instance of Chinese game giants pulling back from their western studio start-upshttps://t.co/zlNvMO5ecx
A Changing Tide for the Giants
This closure isn’t happening in a vacuum. It follows a brutal trend continuing deep into 2026, just days after Sony shuttered Bluepoint. During the pandemic gaming boom, Chinese titans like Tencent and NetEase aggressively expanded. They opened western studios to conquer the console market.
Now, we’re seeing a massive retreat. The staggering costs of North American development are pushing these companies to rethink their strategies. TiMi’s LA-based Team Kaiju already suffered a similar fate back in 2023. The ambitious western expansion is rapidly shrinking.
Also learn more about the closure of Bluepoint Games by Playstation!
Fading Back Into the Concept Folders
We’ll likely never know what TiMi Montreal was actually building. Was it a sprawling fantasy adventure or a gritty sci-fi shooter? Whatever world they were meticulously crafting has been permanently sealed away. It’s a sobering reminder of how volatile game development remains.
Behind every corporate studio closure is a team of artists and engineers who just wanted to share their hard work with us.
A video game enthusiast ever since I first got my hands on a Game Boy. Over the years, I've played many different games across various genres, discovering hidden gems and niche titles along the way. I'm also passionate about technology, always up-to-date with the latest news and insight in the PC and Console market. Ready to share and bring you the latest news !
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