Canada’s gaming industry is thriving. It’s actually the third-largest developer of video games in the world, behind only Japan and the USA. Canadian game providers created many of the most popular video games ever released, and in this article, we will run through some of our favourites.
We’ll be focusing on games designed for consoles from companies such as Microsoft, PlayStation and Nintendo. We won’t, however, be including casino games in our list. If you are keen to try some of these out, claim a no deposit bonus casino Canada and play some games for free at a top Canadian online casino. Before you do that, carry on reading, and you may be surprised to learn what video games Canada has produced.
First, we’ll look at some video game franchises that have entirely or partially been developed in Canada. Then we’ll highlight individual games that Canadian studios have developed.
Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed is a critically and commercially successful series of action/adventure games set in open worlds. It’s the most prominent gaming franchise developed by Ubisoft, a creator and publisher of video games based in Montreal. The very first game in the series was released in 2007. Since then, a further eleven main series games have come out, along with a dozen spin-offs for various platforms.
The premise of Assassin’s Creed is that there is an ongoing conflict between two groups: the Assassins and the Templars. The former wish for peace through goodwill and are the series’ protagonists; the latter want to achieve peace through control and order and are the antagonists.
Most games in the series are set within a particular period. For example, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, one of the newest games, is based in ancient Greece and incorporates Greek mythology and cultural elements. You play as an Assassin character exploring the area and targeting enemies. Each game offers main and side quests, while some of them also have online multiplayer capabilities.
The Assassin’s Creed games are one of the biggest-selling video game franchises of all time, with an excess of 155 million copies sold to date. The games have been praised for their depth, ambition and storytelling, as well as the use of open-world gameplay.
FIFA
Football fans around the world love playing FIFA games. These are developed by EA, also known as Electronic Arts, based in California and is the second-largest video game company outside of Japan. EA has a number of development studios in different countries, and one of them is EA Vancouver. This particular studio is responsible for creating dozens of games, including all of the FIFA ones.
With more than 325 million copies sold, the FIFA franchise is one of the world’s biggest-selling video game series. It’s also the top-selling collection of sports-themed games. There are nearly 40 games in the series, including twenty-one main ones and over a dozen spin-offs. The newest instalment, FIFA 22, is set to be released on 1 October 2021.
What is particularly great about the FIFA games is that they brilliantly bring football to life. The games are developed to a very high standard and are incredibly realistic and immersive. What makes them even more compelling is that they let you play with many of the world’s biggest footballers, clubs and leagues.
Mass Effect
Mass Effect came out in 2007 and was developed by BioWare, a Canadian video game producer based in Edmonton. The gameplay is set near the end of the 22nd century and has you play as Commander Shepard. Your mission is to stop a soldier who has gone rogue from helping an advanced machine race – the Reapers – from conquering the galaxy. When the game was released, it was widely praised for its cinematic visuals and interactive storytelling – you get to make decisions that affect the game’s storyline in numerous ways.
Thanks to the success of Mass Effect, several more games in the series were subsequently released. So far, three more main series games have come out, with a fourth currently in development. Mass Effect: Andromeda is the most recent one, which retains many of the core gameplay elements found in previous instalments but focuses more on exploration and open-world gaming.
As well as the main games, several mobile games have been developed along with two compilations. There’s also been a series of comics and novels, plus a movie, Mass Effect: Paragon Lost, an animated film released in 2012.
Need for Speed
Video games that focus on racing have long been popular. Need for Speed is a successful series of racing games with over two dozen titles that have collectively sold over 150 million copies to date. The premise of the games is simple: you take part in all sorts of street races and complete tasks by performing different types of races, all while avoiding the police.
What’s interesting about this series is that it hasn’t always had the same developer. In fact, it’s gone through nearly a dozen in its time. The first five instalments in the series – from The Need for Speed (1994) to Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed (2000) – were developed by EA Canada, which is based in Montreal. The next seven games in the series were produced by Black Box Studios, a company located in Vancouver. Then in 2010, Criterion Games, a UK-based studio, became the series’ main developer. Since then, no Need for Speed games have been developed in Canada.
Here is a full list of Need for Speed games that Canadian studios developed:
- The Need for Speed (1994)
- Need for Speed II (1997)
- Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998)
- Need for Speed: High Stakes (1999)
- Need for Speed: Porsche Unleased (2000)
- Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (2002)
- Need for Speed: Underground (2003)
- Need for Speed: Underground 2 (2004)
- Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)
- Need for Speed: Carbon (2006)
- Need for Speed: ProStreet (2007)
- Need for Speed: Undercover (2008)
Even though the later games in the series are obviously more modern and advanced, these earlier titles are still worth playing if you happen to have the consoles they are playable on.
Luigi’s Mansion 3
We have looked at four popular video game franchises, and now we’ll focus on some individual games instead. One of the best-known video game characters of all time is Nintendo’s Mario. Over two hundred games feature the short Italian plumber, and they collectively make up the biggest-selling video game franchise of all time.
Luigi is Mario’s younger and taller brother. The character has featured in many Mario games and has starred in over half a dozen of his own. A particularly popular one is Luigi’s Mansion 3. The Nintendo Switch game released in 2019 has Luigi explore a haunted hotel whose every floor is designed to reflect a different theme. It builds on features from previous Luigi’s Mansion games while introducing new ones to the mix. It was a success both in terms of sales and critical response, and it went on to win Best Family Game at The Game Awards 2019. The game was developed by Next Level Games Inc., which is based in Vancouver.
Immortals Fenyx Rising
This is another Ubisoft title developed by the company’s Quebec studio. It is an open-world game set in a world inspired by the mythology of ancient Greece. You play as Fenyx, whose brother has been turned to stone and who gets caught up in the conflict between Typhon, a monstrous creature, and Zeus, who’s desperately trying to imprison Typhon once more. The game’s map is divided into seven sections, all of which can be explored whenever you like.
The game was released in 2020 and went down quite well with critics and players. However, it got some negative feedback due to plenty of similarities to the 2017 game The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which also uses an open-world design. Despite this, Immortals Fenyx Rising has been a success overall and has even been expanded by not one but three DLC packs.
PGA Tour 2K21
This golfing video game is one of Canada’s most highly rated sports games in recent years. It has been praised for its realism not only in terms of its gameplay but also its graphics. It has also been well received for being accessible and for catering for people of different skill and experience levels.
PGA Tour 2K21 was released in 2020 and was developed by HB Studios. This company is based in the town of Lunenburg in the eastern province of Nova Scotia. It specializes in creating video games themed to sports and has developed dozens of popular titles since being formed in 2000. So if you are a golf enthusiast, you are sure to enjoy playing PGA Tour 2K21 thanks to its wealth of content, especially the amount of content that you can customize.
Celeste
The premise of this video game is straightforward. You play as a girl called Madeline, and your objective is to make it up to the top of a mountain. But, of course, there are many obstacles along the way, and while overcoming them, Madeline has to fight her inner demons. This aspect of the game makes it all the more engaging and emotional.
Celeste is unlike other games on our list in that it is an independent release. The company that developed it is Extremely OK Games, which is based in Vancouver. Like other independent games, Celeste wasn’t expected to be a major commercial success. However, thanks to the large amount of positive feedback the game received, it went on to sell over a million copies during 2018 (the year it came out), which is very impressive for a game not published by one of the bigger companies.
Gears 5
The final game on our list is Gears 5, which was created by the Vancouver-based developer The Coalition. The title was released in 2019 and is the sixth instalment in the successful Gears of War series, a collection of third-person shooter games that focuses on the ongoing conflict between humans and the Locust Horde, a group of reptilian creatures that dwell underground. The series as a whole has been a big hit. In fact, the Gears of War games are among the most popular titles on the Xbox Live service.
Gears 5 gained a lot of favourable reviews on its release, with many applauding the gameplay, the storyline progression and the amount of content the game offers. While it was a critical success in many respects, it’s also been a hit commercially. Over the first weekend following its release, it was played by around three million people, making it one of the biggest Microsoft video game launches ever.