The marriage of professionals and the general public for the high mass of Montreal video games will have lasted four years. The Montreal International Game Summit, which will take place next November, will be aimed exclusively at the industry and will take the name of MIGS, announced the Guilde du jeu vidéo du Québec.
“It’s really a homecoming,” says Jean Jacques Hermans, director of the Guild, the organization bringing together some 300 Quebec studios behind this event. It is indeed under the name of MIGS that the event for industry professionals was held from 2004, which was merged in 2019 with the general public component, called Montreal Expo Gaming Arcade, or MEGA.
After four years of “MEGA MIGS”, we therefore decided to drop this general public fair, during which a few thousand players could try out new things and meet video game artisans. It was created in 2017 by the Guild of Independent Video Game Developers of Quebec, which merged in 2019 with the Digital Alliance.
This general public component “was not the best formula”, estimates Mr. Hermans to explain his abandonment. “It worked more or less well. We put a lot of effort into the people who came there […]”
The Video Game Guild will rather participate in existing events intended for the general public, he specifies, such as the Montreal Comiccon, the Salon du jeu et du jeux de Québec, the Sherbrooke Video Game Week or the Game Over Saguenay.
As for the component for industry, the MIGS, it is considerably modified even if it finds its old name. The number of conferences and workshops will be reduced, around thirty at most, and they will mainly focus on “the local ecosystem, the major trends”, announces the general manager.
The guiding thread of the “reformulated” MIGS: to provide a showcase for Quebec independent studios to make themselves known to the industry. “We’re trying something a little different,” says Hermans. It’s more focused on the needs of independent studios, networking, business opportunities, marketing. »
The major member studios of the Guild such as Ubisoft, Eidos-Montreal or WB Games Montreal agree with this shift, says the general manager, whom they finance in part with their contributions. “Big studios need MIGS less, but they know it’s important for the 250 independent studios that don’t have any other way to get their name out there.” »
Holding of the first Montreal International Games Summit, better known by its English acronym, MIGS, for Montreal International Games Summit. The event for industry professionals is organized by the Digital Alliance, an association founded in 2001 bringing together mainly the major video game studios.
The Guild of Independent Video Game Developers of Quebec, which includes some 160 small studios, is launching a trade show for the general public, the Montreal Expo Gaming Arcade (MEGA). The first edition attracts some 200 developers to Bonsecours Market in Old Montreal and is sold out.
The two major Quebec video game associations, the Guild of Independent Video Game Developers of Quebec and the Digital Alliance, merge and become the Video Game Guild of Quebec. Their two flagship events are grouped together under the name MEGA MIGS.
