Little more than a year ago, Stéphane D'Astous was plotting Eidos's Canada strategy from the basement of his Montreal home. He now oversees a video games studio employing 110 people and expects that number to treble by the end of 2009, writes Bernard Simon in Toronto .

Among the projects that the UK-based games publisher has entrusted to its fast-growing Canadian unit is the third edition of Deus Ex , the popular anti-terror game. But generous financial incentives only partly explain why video companies are flocking to Canada - executives say they come for the money but stay for the talent. Skills required to make video games have been plentiful for years in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. "Every year we can provide the industry with 1,500 newly graduated employees," says Jacques Daoust, chief executive of Quebec's economic development agency.