Ahead of PGC Summit Montreal on November 10th, we're putting the spotlight on Canada's games industry. The event will take place during MIGS - you can find more details here.
Ludia’s past few years have followed a pattern familiar across mobile: an acquisition, a market correction and a round of cuts. Where its story differs is the ending.
In early 2025, a group of Canadian investors and senior management bought the Montreal studio from Jam City. Now independent again, it is hiring, building new games and looking for studios to acquire.
We sat down with Ludia CEO Jimmy Gendron to discuss what the lean years taught the studio, where he sees value in today’s M&A market and why Canada still lacks a mobile publisher of real scale.
When Jam City acquired Ludia for $165 million in 2021, the studio employed almost 400 people. By the time of the buyout, it was down to around 130.
“Jam City acquired Ludia in late 2021, and the three years that followed were difficult for the entire gaming industry,” CEO Jimmy Gendron says. “Changes to privacy on mobile made user acquisition harder and more expensive and player engagement normalised after Covid.”
What survived was the core: the teams behind Jurassic World Alive, Jurassic World: The Game and Dragons: Rise of Berk.
“What we learned is that smaller teams are a powerful forcing function,” Gendron says.
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