It's hard to believe that Ubisoft was once comprised of five brothers working together out of a small town in rural France. The company is now the third-largest video game publisher on the planet and a multinational corporation. Ubisoft has branches in Montreal, Milan, San Francisco and several other countries all across the world. One location that has piqued the company's interest is Russia. The world's largest country also holds one of gaming's largest emerging marketplaces.
Today, at the Igromir convention in Russia, Ubisoft announced that it would be opening a new studio in the heart of Moscow: Ubisoft Russia. The new office will focus on community and support for all of Ubisoft's Russian titles, and will work towards spreading the publisher's games throughout the region.
The mega-publisher's Executive Director Alain Corre said, "What we've seen throughout our time in the region is that Russian players are passionate, vocal and committed to the games they love," said Alain Corre, Executive Director of EMEA, Ubisoft. "Establishing an office in Moscow demonstrates our commitment to Russian gamers, and will help us grow in lockstep with this rapidly expanding market."
Currently, Russia's gaming community is expanding rapidly. The Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report, created by PwC in order to evaluate growth in the region, said that Russian gaming is looking at double-digit compound annual growth for the next several years. In layman's terms, more and more people in Russia are buying games, which means the industry will grow.
In fact, Ubisoft has already seen some success in the region. During the beta test of The Crew, Russia saw more user activity than anywhere else in the world, including the United States and Germany.
The new studio will be headed by Olga Lazareva, who previously worked for one of EA's Russian branches. Speaking about Ubisoft's involvement in the region, Lazareva said, "Ubisoft's new office and expansion here shows our appreciation for the growth of the Russian gaming community. We're looking forward to improving our relationship with Russian customers and to delivering a distinct lineup of localized games that offers something for every type of Russian player."
As of now, the studio seems more focused on Russian support and community involvement than the actual development of games. Focusing on customer support and events like Igromir will likely take precedence at Ubisoft Russia, though it's certainly possible that the studio could start creating games themselves if the market continues to grow.
