Ubisoft announced yesterday that it will be bolstering its Canadian operations with the addition of a new studio in Toronto.<\/p>\n
The studio, which will be the fourth in the country for the games developer responsible for titles such as ‘Assassin’s Creed’, is pinned to begin operation later this year and will employ 800 people and will be responsible for internal development.<\/p>\n
“We’re excited to be able to count on the exceptional local talent, who will contribute to our accelerated growth and will have a profound impact on the video game industry with the excellence of their creativity.” commented Ubisoft Chief Executive Yves Guillemot.<\/p>\n
The company plans to use the studio to synthesise the worlds of film and gaming, last year Ubisoft bought special effects firm Hybride, which worked on both ‘300’ and ‘Sin City’. This year it will be releasing a series of short films to accompany ‘Assassin’s Creed 2’ which is due out in November.<\/p>\n
“Toronto’s unique pool of experienced video game and film industry talent will allow us to develop a team with exceptional ability to help us realize our goals for creating brands with universal appeal that extend beyond the world of video games.” added Yannis Mallat, head of Ubisoft’s Montreal Studio who is set to oversee the Toronto facility.<\/p>\n
Ubisoft is also responsible for the ‘Tom Clancy’ range and owns the rights to produce a game version of 2011’s Tin Tin movie, directed by Steven Spielberg.<\/p>\n