Ubisoft Opens Quebec City Studio

Representatives from French publisher and developer Ubisoft have officially announced the opening of the company’s new offices in Quebec City, Canada. The company has stated that it intends to invest $75 million CAD ($60m USD) in the new complex and create 200 jobs, including 75 this year. "We are in Quebec City for its talent and its dynamic nature. Our objective is to build a studio where creativity and technological know how will come together to create world class games,” said Martin Tremblay, president and COO of Ubisoft in Canada. The new production studio will be located in the heart of the Saint-Roch district at 390, Charest East, and will join Ubisoft development or production studios in Annecy, France; Austin, Texas (Wolfpack Studios); Barcelona, Spain; Bucharest, Romania; Casablanca, Morocco; Düsseldorf, Germany (Blue Byte); Milan, Italy; Montpellier, France; Montreal, Quebec; Morrisville, NC (Red Storm); Paris, France; and Shanghai, China. The company's website notes that Ubisoft currently has around 3,000 permanent employees worldwide, of which 2/3rds are dedicated directly to game creation. The company announced in February that it would invest $700 million CAD ($561m USD) over five years in Canada, creating 1,000 new jobs in Quebec by 2010 and bringing its total number of employees in the province to 2,000. The Quebec City studio was first announced in April, following previous expansion in Montreal – which was also aided extensively by government funding.