Velan Studios Opens Toronto Office Following 2024 Restructuring

Velan Studios has officially opened a new office in Downtown Toronto, marking a strategic expansion into the Canadian market. The studio, best known for Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, is positioning this location to support both self-published original titles and external partnership projects. This move comes roughly two years after the studio announced a reorganization that placed 46 employee positions at risk.

The expansion announcement includes details about hiring practices and operational structure. Velan is recruiting for hybrid roles requiring three days weekly in-office attendance, alongside fully onsite positions at both the Toronto location and their headquarters in Troy, New York. Current openings span senior gameplay animator, art director, senior technical artist, studio art manager, senior systems designer, senior combat designer, and senior level designer roles. More positions will reportedly be announced soon.

WN Hub first reported the establishment of the Toronto branch, noting the studio's membership in Ontario Interactive, a non-profit trade association for the interactive digital media industry. The company's official messaging frames this as a growth initiative tied to their 10th anniversary celebration.

Karthik Bala, Velan's CEO and co-founder, stated the studio's goal remains creating breakthrough games that deliver surprise and delight to players. He emphasized collaboration with Toronto developers who are curious, thoughtful, and passionate about crafting special player experiences. The quote appears across multiple outlets, suggesting it was part of a coordinated press release.

This expansion follows a turbulent period for the studio. Knockout City, their multiplayer title, was discontinued in June 2023, roughly two years after launch. In 2024, Velan announced an early-stage reorganization process after an external project was canceled by an unnamed partner. The 46 employees affected were notified their jobs were at risk. Whether this Toronto opening represents genuine recovery or a pivot strategy remains unclear.

GamesIndustry.biz corroborated the timeline and scope of the expansion, including the job postings and hybrid work requirements. The outlet also noted the studio's history with Vicarious Visions, where both Bala brothers previously worked before founding Velan in 2016.

Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow welcomed the studio, citing the city's global hub status for digital media and game development. She highlighted the talent pool and skilled workforce as key factors. Her statement reads like standard municipal press language (which is to be expected from city officials), but the job creation angle is genuine.

The physical reality of this expansion matters for developers considering applications. Three days in-office means commuting to Downtown Toronto twice weekly, dealing with subway delays or parking costs. The hybrid model isn't fully remote, which eliminates the work-from-anywhere flexibility many studios now offer. For someone living in the GTA, this is manageable. For someone in rural Ontario, it's a dealbreaker.

Velan's portfolio includes Midnight Murder Club, another title from their catalog. The studio's track record shows mixed results: Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit achieved commercial success as a licensed product, while Knockout City's shutdown demonstrated the risks of self-published multiplayer games. The Toronto office will reportedly work on both original titles and industry IP partnerships, suggesting a dual-track strategy.

Industry observers note the timing is significant. The gaming sector has seen consolidation and layoffs across major publishers since 2022. Velan's expansion into Canada could signal confidence in their pipeline, or it could be a cost-arbitrage play. Toronto offers competitive talent without Silicon Valley salary expectations. The math works either way.

The studio's membership in Ontario Interactive adds legitimacy to their Canadian operations. This non-profit association connects developers with resources, advocacy, and networking opportunities. For a studio rebuilding after layoffs, industry connections matter as much as headcount.

What remains unconfirmed is whether this expansion includes new game announcements. The press materials focus on hiring and office opening, not specific titles. No release dates, no gameplay footage, no roadmap. The studio is selling the location, not the product. Whether players actually care about where games are made is another question entirely.

For job seekers, the hybrid requirement creates friction. Three days in-office means three days of commute, three days of office politics, three days of not working from home. The trade-off is access to a studio with Nintendo partnership experience and a track record of shipped titles. Whether that's worth the commute depends on your tolerance for subway crowds.

The Toronto office represents a bet on local talent and a bet on the studio's future. After 2024's reorganization, this is either a recovery story or a pivot. The hiring suggests confidence, but the lack of game announcements suggests caution. Both can be true simultaneously.

Whether this expansion translates to shipped games that players actually want remains the real question. Offices don't make games. Teams do. And teams need stable funding, clear direction, and products that sell. Velan has the experience. The market will decide if it's enough.

Artūras Malašauskas is an AI Systems Integrator with 20+ years of production-grade web engineering experience. He has designed, shipped, and scaled enterprise Python/PHP systems for logistics, SaaS, and public-sector clients. For the past year, he has focused exclusively on AI integrations: deploying open-source LLMs, building generative media pipelines (image, audio, video), and engineering multi-agent workflows for real production environments. His standard: reproducibility, security, cost-efficient inference—no vaporware. He documents and evaluates emerging AI tooling, separating verified capabilities from marketing noise. Technical editor at: muza-ai.eu, ai-verslas.lt, ai-naujinos.lt Connect on LinkedIn