Tencent TiMi Montreal closure caps five-year, zero-game Western AAA retreat
Summary
Tencent shut down TiMi Montreal after five years and zero shipped titles
The closure extends an 18-month retreat by Chinese mega-publishers from pandemic-era Western AAA bets
NetEase pulled funding from multiple Western studios roughly one year ago; Tencent's move follows the same pattern
"I am genuinely heartbroken that the public will never get to experience what this team was capable of producing"
01
TiMi Montreal operated five years without shipping or even publicly showing a game
Studio was announced July 2021 to build "AAA open world multi-platform games"
No project details ever surfaced publicly before the closure
Staff knew the shutdown was coming "for some time," per a LinkedIn post from inside the studio
Tencent did not respond to comment requests before or after the closure
02
Chinese mega-publishers' Western AAA expansion is unwinding across the board
Tencent and NetEase both stood up Western studios post-2020, staffed with developers carrying major AAA credits
The model has produced almost no commercial output across either company's Western portfolio
NetEase pulled funding from multiple Western studios approximately one year ago
Game File reporting describes the strategic retreat as "evident over the past 18 months"
TiMi Montreal is the latest data point in that pattern, not an isolated event
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