The Philippines will have its first major gaming studio as Ubisoft unveils today its studio expansion in the country which will be headquartered in Santa Rosa, Laguna. It would be the 30th studio from the development of the French publisher's Singapore operation. The shift proves not just how worldwide the $99.3 billion game industry has grown, but also how it's seeking for new places to find game developers.
The move came about due to the hired contingent of Philippine employees by Ubisoft Singapore, and Oliver de Rotalier, Ubisoft's managing director, noticed the great relationships and trust the Filipino team has established there.
"As we did in Singapore, we want to expose people to major triple-A franchise," de Rotalier said about expanding into the Philippines. To help stock that local talent pool, Ubisoft is turning to the University of De La Salle in Manila to set up a training program. Ubisoft Singapore had a similar partnership with Digipen, a Redmond, Washington-based school for learning video game design," as quoted in a Venture Beat report.
According to the Ubisoft Philippines manager Chip Go, this year they will be hiring 50 new team members, ranging from artists to programmers and designers to project managers. He said that they are confident in their ability to develop a strong team to take up challenges.
Ubisoft Philippines is going to be an extension of Ubisoft Singapore and will be the second production house in Southeast Asia. The company's first studio in Southeast Asia is Ubisoft Singapore which opened in 2008. The Philippine-based studio is set to operate by the second quarter of 2016, as reported by the Inquirer.net.
Ubisoft along with other game developers are more and more interested in the Asia-Pacific region since it is one of the most rapid-growing markets in the gaming world today. Last year, China saw total gaming revenue of $22 billion which is $265 million more compared to the U.S. market, according to Fortune.
The likeness of the Philippines for Ubisoft was a mixture of things according to de Rotalier. Geographically speaking, it's in the company's goal area of interest besides, there is a huge English-speaking populace which is helpful as teams from different countries work and the company can assist mold the game developer culture there.
Ubisoft is well-known for many best-selling franchises including Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia and Rainbow Six. Ubisoft Philippines is situated in Santa Rosa, Laguna and will have strong ties to its Singapore Hub where a group of founding Singaporean team members will train Ubisoft Philippines' staff.
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