Ubisoft announced that they had bought the Vancouver-based studio Action Pants. Action Pants has been ranked as one of the best companies to work for in 2008 and 2009. This makes it a first for Ubisoft to have a studio on North America’s west coast.
“We are very excited about this opportunity, and how it will benefit our studio”, said Simon Andrews, co-founder and executive partner of Action Pants. “Action Pants and Ubisoft share very similar values and we are confident that this synergy will provide all of our staff with new and exciting opportunities, as well as resources that will benefit all of our future products”.
“We have been looking closely at Vancouver for some time, as we wished to set up a presence in what is one of the industry’s biggest talent pools,” revealed Christine Burgess-Quemard, executive director of worldwide production studios at Ubisoft . “The creative talent at Action Pants made the decision an easy one, and we are delighted to both establish ourselves in the region as well as welcome a fantastic group of experienced developers who can start exchanging with our other teams worldwide.”
Action Pants Studios was established in 2006 and has over 110 videogame developers. Ubisoft hasn’t yet come forth saying what the studio’s first game is going to be, except that the new intellectual property will be available only for the Nintendo Wii which will “expand on Ubisoft’s recent success in the sports genre with the Shaun White Snowboarding franchise”, according to statements.