The 2025 Montreal International Game Summit made a grand return to the city on Tuesday, where they’re holding a special two-day event at Grand Quay in the Old Port.
Described by industry insiders as the gateway to the North American games industry, this 22nd edition serves to unite the industry through shifting market realities by focusing on innovation, competitiveness, and financing, in what they’re calling the next chapter in gaming.
“Right now, what we’re seeing in the video game industry is a transformation. How games are being made is changing, how people are playing games is changing, and there are more options than ever. When I grew up, there was one way to play video games: you either had a Nintendo, a Sega, or a PC. Now you can play on your phone. It’s a different type of game you can play on your TV subscription service, you can play on console,” said Jason Lepine, the founder and CEO of XP Gaming and executive producer of MIGS25.
But it’s not only the types of games and how people are playing them that’s shifting. A recent Entertainment Software Association of Canada report released in October earlier this year reveals that 51 per cent of Canadian gamers are women — slightly more than men at 49 per cent — and that older adults are playing video games regularly.
“In the games industry, there is a massive change every three years basically. What remains constant is that players love great games. So, that’s always something that you can kind of focus on,” said William Dubé, the CEO of Thunder Lotus Games.
As CEO of Thunder Lotus Games, which creates hand-drawn 2D games reminiscent of old Disney films, Dubé is among Quebec developers at MIGS to support smaller studios and pursue international business deals.
“MIGS is becoming this international hub, we’re seeing over 20 countries representing people coming from all over the world to invest in Canadian studios to do business deals here in Canada and that’s really exciting,” said Lepine.
Despite recent layoffs and post-COVID adjustments, industry insiders report strong growth in Quebec and Canada, with video games contributing $5.1 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2024 — a 3 per cent increase since 2021, according to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada.
“Here in Quebec, we have an industry, and the video game industry that’s top five in the world. You know, we represent 16,000 employees here in Quebec. Just at La Guilde, as a secular association, we have over 350 businesses building and developing IP video games, and selling the games globally around the world,” said Jean-Jacques Hermans, the executive director of la Guilde du Jeu Vidéo du Québec.
“Everybody knows globally, you know, we’re the best at producing games, where we need to improve at marketing our games because there’s anywhere between 15 to 20,000 games a year that come out on Steam”, Hermans added.
Dubé says, “Games are a fantastic industry for our country, for our province. They’re a creative industry. It’s an exporting industry. It’s a green industry, a non-extractive industry. So, it’s an industry that can take in capital from all over the world and then export our games to all across the world and bring the dollars back to Canada.”
