Gamers never got to see what TiMi Montreal had in store.
Tencent-backed studio TiMi Montreal has officially closed its doors after five years without releasing an original game.
Founded in 2021 to deliver AAA open-world titles, TiMi Montreal was chiefly focused on titles inherited from Jade Studio, the team’s name prior to 2020, like Honor of Kings, alongside mobile spin-offs including Pokémon Unite and Call of Duty: Mobile (which is different from the mobile Warzone game that is shutting down in April).
Sources close to the studio had been hinting at a closure for weeks. According to a report by Game File, a TiMi Montreal programmer confirmed the shutdown on LinkedIn (LinkedIn post inaccessible as of time of writing) saying, “Workers had been aware this was coming for some time, but I am genuinely heartbroken that the public will never get to experience what this team was capable of producing.”
O the same thread, a senior designer added that "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 part of it."
Several other staff members shared similar posts about the closure.
TiMI Montreal closes despite working on multiple AAA projects
Despite the promise of “AAA open-world multi-platform games,” TiMi Montreal never announced a game it was actively developing, nor did it disclose any co-development support on recently shipped projects. The studio was launched during a global expansion wave, driven by the pandemic-era boom in gaming and large-scale investment. Chinese publishers Tencent and NetEase had been actively establishing Western studios with experienced developers, hoping to translate mobile success into console-style hits. TiMi Montreal was part of this push, employing teams skilled in high-budget game development.
Across the wider TiMi Group, between 5,000 and 10,000 people are employed, with the Montreal studio representing a relatively small branch. The closure marks the end of a five-year period in which the studio worked on inherited titles and mobile projects, but never released an original AAA game to the public.
Tencent and TiMi Studio Group have not released an official statement regarding the matter.
