Over on Games Industry, they’re reporting that Ubisoft has opened up a branch in both Berlin and Bordeaux. Bringing 100 new jobs along for the ride. Ubisoft has certainly kept busy of late, with the new Rainbow Six game, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Watch Dogs 2 and For Honor all running full steam ahead, just to name a few. They’ve also got something cooking in the Assassin’s Creed arena after taking a year off from what had evolved into an annual series.
Apparently, they’ve still got more projects rolling than they have the staff to spread them across. Though, as Ubisoft has opened the door on another French studio and one more in Germany.
It doesn’t sound like these new studios will be cut loose on their own projects just yet. However, as official word is that they will begin work assisting other studios in the development of AAA games that Ubisoft already has going. That’s not really a shocker, as multiple studios are frequently leaned on with some of these more massive projects current gen publishers are tackling.
For those of you who enjoy some inside baseball in the games industry, it looks like Ubisoft Bordeaux will be headed up by studio manager Julien Mayeux. Though nobody has been named to the Ubisoft Berlin staff at this time.
For their part, Ubisoft worldwide studios director Christine Burgess-Quemard said that part of the reason they’ve decided to open these new studios is to continue to help grow the industry. Fresh studios mean it’s time to hire fresh employees, opening up new job opportunities for an industry that isn’t necessarily overflowing with positions on AAA teams.
As noted above, these teams will lend a helping hand on games already in development from Ubisoft in their respective regions. The Paris team will jump in with games like Steep and Just Dance. While the Berlin studio will help out on the series Anno and The Settlers. They aren’t going full tilt just yet, however, as the two studios are expected to add those 100 extra Ubisoft employees between them sometime over the next year. So if you’ve got talent and a desire to move overseas, maybe that’s something worth checking out?
Again, in an industry where it feels like we’re reporting on studio closures with increased frequency. It’s nice to have an opportunity to point to a publisher like Ubisoft and highlight the fact that they’ll be adding more jobs to the world of game development.
