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KRAFTON Montréal Studio is a Canadian video game development studio based in Montréal, Québec. It is a subsidiary of KRAFTON, Inc. (South Korea), the publisher of PUBG: Battlegrounds. The studio is developing Project Windless, its debut title.

Studio Values

The studio describes itself in three lines on its own site: driven developers who take action and get things done, passionate gamers building an experience they will be proud of, and pragmatic dreamers who stay ambitious while picking their battles wisely.

Founding

The studio was publicly announced in February 2023, with plans to hire approximately 150 people within three years of founding. The studio began with Patrik Méthé as its first and sole employee in October 2022; when he began recruiting, the studio did not yet have a public website, and he showed candidates physical copies of concept art to introduce them to the four-race setting.

Leadership

Patrik Méthé, Studio Head and Creative Director

Méthé spent a long career at Ubisoft Montréal, where he worked on the Splinter Cell, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six franchises, including more than ten years as a game director. His Game Director credits include Far Cry 3, Far Cry 4, Far Cry 5, Far Cry New Dawn, and Rainbow Six: Extraction. He held roles as Lead Game Designer and Lead AI Designer before becoming Game Director. His earliest credited game was Syberia (2002).

Other Key Team Members

• Benoit Frappier, Producer

• Frédéric Duroc, Game Director

• Martin Paradis, Technology Director

• Iain McCaig, Concept Artist. A well-known Hollywood concept artist best known for designing Darth Maul for Star Wars. Also worked on multiple Marvel films.

Development Approach

The Montréal team collaborates closely with KRAFTON's teams in Pangyo, South Korea to ensure cultural authenticity for the game's Korean fantasy setting. Coverage from the project's early concept years, before the Montréal studio existed, named Son Kwangjae among the KRAFTON staff working on it. Those accounts give him different titles and the studio's own team page does not list him, so his role is not settled. Creative Director Patrik Méthé has described the studio's approach as a blend of Western AAA game development expertise with Korean storytelling traditions.

The studio takes a "traditional, craftsmanship-driven approach" to single-player development. KRAFTON has confirmed that the studio does not use generative AI for content creation or narrative elements, instead relying on traditional machine learning for NPC behavior systems, standard technology in game development. The team does use AI tooling internally during exploratory phases to support iteration and efficiency, but these are development aids, not player-facing features.

Why Montréal

Montréal is one of the world's largest game development hubs, home to major studios including Ubisoft Montréal, Eidos-Montréal, and Warner Bros. Games Montréal. KRAFTON chose the city to tap into the deep talent pool of experienced AAA developers, particularly those with open-world and action game expertise. Many of the studio's hires come from Ubisoft and other major Montréal studios.