Tencent Reportedly Shuts Down TiMi Montreal, Ending a 5 Year AAA Open World Push Before Any Game Ships
Tencent has reportedly closed TiMi Montreal, the TiMi Studio Group team founded in 2021 to build AAA open world multi platform games, marking another sharp reminder that the global games industry contraction is still accelerating in 2026. The report comes from Game File, which says the entire studio is being shuttered, with staff losing their roles nearly 5 years after the team was created and before it publicly released a single title.
According to Game File, the closure surfaced publicly after a now deleted LinkedIn post from a programmer stated the studio had officially closed, adding that employees had been aware of the situation for some time and expressing heartbreak that the public would never get to experience what the team was building. Game File also reports that Tencent and TiMi did not provide comment when contacted.
TiMi Montreal was originally announced on July 19, 2021, with TiMi Studio Group describing the Montreal team as a new North America studio tasked with creating an original IP and developing a AAA open world, service focused game meant to be explored across multiple platforms, with an initial focus on console and PC quality. That intent is laid out in the original press release: TiMi Montreal opening announcement.
Beyond the studio mission statement, little has been publicly confirmed about what the team was actually producing. The Game File report notes that details of the project did not surface, leaving the shutdown to land without the usual closure that comes from a reveal, a trailer, or even a formal cancellation statement.
Leadership context adds another layer to the story. The Montreal studio was led by former Assassin’s Creed franchise lead Ashraf Ismail, who joined Tencent after being fired from Ubisoft following an investigation into misconduct allegations, as previously reported here: Ashraf Ismail role at Tencent. The presence of a well known franchise leader was a big part of the original signal that TiMi Montreal was aiming for premium console style production values, but the closure shows how quickly even well staffed Western expansion bets can be reversed when market conditions harden.
Zooming out, this is another data point in a 2026 pattern where entire teams are being eliminated, not just reduced. As you noted, this is now the 4th studio shutdown this year following PlayStation shuttering Bluepoint Games, Ubisoft shutting down its Halifax studio, and Hasbro shuttering its Atomic Arcade team. The market is clearly prioritizing near term financial discipline over long horizon incubation, and AAA open world development is one of the most capital intensive genres to sustain when greenlights become harder to secure.
For Tencent specifically, the implication is that the company is continuing to recalibrate Western console scale ambitions. TiMi has delivered major mobile scale results historically, but building a new AAA open world service platform across console and PC is a very different operational reality, with higher burn, longer timelines, and a tougher premium marketplace that demands both launch impact and live cadence excellence.
Do you think publishers should stop betting on brand new AAA open world teams until market conditions stabilize, or is this exactly when long term builders should double down while competitors retreat?
