Ubisoft has decided to open yet another Canadian studio. Ubisoft Winnipeg is the latest addition to the studios located in Montreal, Quebec City, Saguenay, Toronto and Halifax.
Far Cry 5's producer Darryl Long was named managing director of new co-development studio. He spent the last 15 years in Montreal, joining the French company as a programmer specializing in Artificial Intelligence.
Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Long said: "
We very quickly realized that Manitoba, and Winnipeg specifically, is actually a hidden gem of video game talent. There's a very specific and complementary mandate for the studio, which is that we want to contribute to the development of the big AAA brands--like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Watch Dogs--specifically in the area of building open worlds," he continued. "
Our goal in Winnipeg is to do the research and development on the processes, the pipeline and the tools, to put the investment in to making them as efficient as possible, and ultimately increase the quality of the open worlds we're producing for our games. So we'll be working hand-in-hand with the other Canadian studios to develop their AAA brands, and specifically their open worlds."
Ubisoft Winnipeg is expected to grow to a headcount of 100 people within five years, representing an investment of $35 million in the province. Ubisoft now has 13,000 employees spread between 30 countries worldwide, with about 4,500 of those based in Canada. Far Cry 5's team has contained over 1,000 people worldwide, and spread between a number of studios. Ubisoft Toronto did about one-third of the game's open world, Ubisoft Shanghai was responsible for populating it with wildlife, and Ubisoft Kiev did work on the engine and the PC version.
Just last month, Ubisoft opened two new studios in Mumbai, India, and the other in Odessa, Ukraine.
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