Ubisoft expands operations in China

Video games developer Ubisoft is to open a development studio in China, the company announced today.

Ubisoft was one of the first foreign games developers to open a studio in China with its Shanghai subsidiary nearly 11 years ago.

"The success of our studio in Shanghai, which has been further confirmed with the launch of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 for the PlayStation 3, has encouraged us to extend our growth in China," said Christine Burgess-Quémard, Ubisoft's executive director of worldwide studios.

"We are convinced that Chengdu offers the perfect environment for our expansion, offering a great number of highly educated and talented people."

The new studio in Chengdu's Tianfu Software Park has a recruitment target of 200 development staff within a year.

Chengdu, one of western China's largest cities, has lagged behind the country's booming eastern and southern regions until recently, but has begun to attract high-tech investment from firms like Intel.

"Ubisoft Chengdu will initially focus on internal outsourcing and in time will be responsible for developing online titles for PC, consoles and handhelds, " the company announced.

Since its establishment in 1996, Ubisoft Shanghai has become the largest and most successful foreign-operated studio in China, doing much of the work on successful projects such as the Splinter Cell series.

The studio currently focuses on game development and local marketing, and is noted in China for its competent management and strong games development teams.

Ubisoft Shanghai also published Sony's EverQuest multiplayer online role playing game in China. However, while Everquest broke records in western nations, winning it the nickname 'Evercrack', the game flopped in China.