Ubisoft Dons Action Pants in Canada
New Wii winter sports game being developed in Vancouver?
Yaletown/Pacific Place in Vancouver
Ubisoft has expanded its operations to the West Coast of North America, buying Vancouver-based Action Pants, based in the Yaletown area..
Ubisoft has been coy on just what the newly acquired studio is developing, but has said, "2009 will see the release of the studio’s first title, a sports game developed exclusively for Wii. This new intellectual property will expand upon Ubisoft's recent success in the sports genre with the Shaun White Snowboarding franchise."
While it's not massively likely that Ubisoft is establishing a second snowboarding IP, SPOnG reckons it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a studio within two hours of Whistler working on a winter sports title. Especially given that Vancouver will be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics...
Action Pants was established three years ago by Simon Andrews, Nik Palmer and Omar Al-Khafaji and currently employs 110 developers.
"We have been looking closely at Vancouver for some time, as we wished to set up a presence in what is one of the industry’s biggest talent pools", said Christine Burgess-Quemard, executive director of worldwide production studios at Ubisoft. "The creative talent at Action Pants made the decision an easy one, and we are delighted to both establish ourselves in the region as well as welcome a fantastic group of experienced developers who can start exchanging with our other teams worldwide."
This isn't Ubisoft's only recent acquisition - it recently picked up Brazilian studio Southlogic.
Ubisoft already has a strong Canadian presence, but one that is focussed around Montreal, home to substantial games industry tax breaks.
Ubisoft has been coy on just what the newly acquired studio is developing, but has said, "2009 will see the release of the studio’s first title, a sports game developed exclusively for Wii. This new intellectual property will expand upon Ubisoft's recent success in the sports genre with the Shaun White Snowboarding franchise."
While it's not massively likely that Ubisoft is establishing a second snowboarding IP, SPOnG reckons it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a studio within two hours of Whistler working on a winter sports title. Especially given that Vancouver will be hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics...
Action Pants was established three years ago by Simon Andrews, Nik Palmer and Omar Al-Khafaji and currently employs 110 developers.
"We have been looking closely at Vancouver for some time, as we wished to set up a presence in what is one of the industry’s biggest talent pools", said Christine Burgess-Quemard, executive director of worldwide production studios at Ubisoft. "The creative talent at Action Pants made the decision an easy one, and we are delighted to both establish ourselves in the region as well as welcome a fantastic group of experienced developers who can start exchanging with our other teams worldwide."
This isn't Ubisoft's only recent acquisition - it recently picked up Brazilian studio Southlogic.
Ubisoft already has a strong Canadian presence, but one that is focussed around Montreal, home to substantial games industry tax breaks.
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