Ubi Opens Shop in India
Marking how important gaming is in Southeast Asia, Ubisoft today announced that it has bought Gameloft’s game development studio based in Pune, India. The 120-strong studio will initially focus on porting titles to handheld consoles and reinforce the company’s testing teams. The goal is to increase the number to 200 developers in a year and to reach a team of 500 in the coming years.
“Following on the recent announcement of our new Singapore studio, this acquisition will reinforce Ubisoft’s presence in Asia and the southeast region in particular,” stated Christine Burgess-Quémard, executive director, worldwide studios at Ubisoft. “India has a promising future in the videogame industry and this is an opportunity for us to establish ourselves in the country.”
Pune is known as the “Oxford of the East”, pushing out 80,000 engineer graduates each year. This satellite city of Mumbai is part of the second generation of India’s techno-poles, and is widely considered to be one of the most pleasant cities to live in the country.