The founders of Gearbox Quebec, which contributed to multiple Borderlands titles, have announced a new Canadian studio containing a number of other Canadian AAA developers. Studio Ricochet has a goal of creating “original, premium games on their own terms” while “taking the opposite approach” to other post-AAA teams which have run into problems.
The studio has been founded by Sébastien Caisse and Pierre-André Déry, who previously launched and lead Gearbox Studio Québec, alongside former Borderlands Creative Director Maxime Babin and former Gearbox Director of Creative Development Yanick Piché. Caisse and Déry departed Gearbox in 2024.
The leadership team also contains “veteran developers from Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, and other major franchises”, the studio said, all of whom are working full-time. It will work on “original IP for PC and console, with a mandate built around bold creative vision and memorable worlds,” and its first title will be “a co-op action-adventure game designed for a global audience”.
“We want to make games that will leave a mark, something polished and satisfying, but that ultimately lets you move on with your life,” Bebin told GamesIndustry.biz. “It’s going to be a premium, buy-to-play game. Not a live service, not a GaaS model. If we had to put ourselves on a scale, we would be closer to games like Returnal, Uncharted, or It Takes Two than we would be to Destiny or Warframe.”
The studio is currently self-funded, which Déry told GamesIndustry.biz was a deliberate choice: “no publisher mandate, no investor timeline, no external pressure during the earliest creative phase,” he says. “It gives us the space to make the right decisions while the foundation of the game and the studio is still being shaped.” The team is in “active conversations” about the medium term, with sufficient funding to hit initial milestones.
“What we’ve observed in several of the veteran-led studios that struggled is that they were operating at significant scale before they’d fully proven the concept”
Déry is mindful of comparisons to other teams lead by AAA veterans that have failed to find success beyond early funding.
“What we’ve observed in several of the veteran-led studios that struggled is that they were operating at significant scale before they’d fully proven the concept,” he says. “Large teams, large burn rates, and external pressures that compressed creative timelines. We’re taking the opposite approach: small senior team, low overhead, clear creative ownership, no external mandate. Prove the vision first, then grow around it.”
“We’ve also been through the full cycle before, from greenlight to ship, at scale, more than once. We know where projects break down. A lot of what we’re building into Ricochet’s DNA is specifically designed around those failure points: fast decision-making, focused production, and a team that has worked together long enough to trust each other without adding bureaucracy for sport. Not a guarantee, but a meaningfully different risk profile.”
Babin says the studio’s debut title aims to be a “fun shareable experience with something to say.”
“Coop action-adventure is well represented in the live-service model, but not so much at the premium end,” he says. “On the flip side there are many excellent single-player experiences with real substance. A premium coop action-adventure, with strong world-building and a distinct artistic vision is the gap we’re trying to fill. It’s the sacrifice of making what you would really love to play, knowing you’ll see all the spoilers.”
Déry described the studio as inspired by “independent teams that punch way above their weight.”
“Studios like Arrowhead, Remedy and Sabotage who built incredible experiences without losing their identity,” he says. “On the creative side we have many inspirations from many fields. The world building of Studio Ghibli, the craftmanship of Denis Villeneuve, the boldness of FromSoftware. And in many ways, the punk-rock attitude of our friends at Gearbox.”