French animation and video game maker Ankama Group has launched its first North American studio in Montreal.

Ankama joins other international games makers like France’s Ubisoft, Eidos-Square Enix of Japan, and Electronic Arts and Warner Bros. that similarly tapped local subsidies to establish a production presence in Montreal.

Ankama, with backing from Montréal International and Investissement Québec, intends to create 40 jobs over the next three years with its new Montreal studio.

Quebec in recent years has contended against rival provinces like Ontario and British Columbia to land foreign video game producers to establishing a local studio presence.

“Thanks to the pool of highly specialized workers in the greater Montréal area, our new studio will be able to develop an entirely new generation of massively multiplayer online games in addition to adapting new graphics engines in the Ankama tradition, blurring the lines between video games and interactive cartoons,” said Anthony Roux, Ankama Group’s co-founder and creative director, in a statement Monday.

 Pictured: DOFUS, an online multi-player role-playing game from Ankama Group