Focus Entertainment taps Ubisoft veterans to establish Carpool Studio

A Plague Tale and Atomic Heart publisher Focus Entertainment has formed a new studio dedicated to the development of an "ambitious multiplayer game."

The new opening is called Carpool Studio and is currently working on the game-as-a-service project, which is based on a new intellectual property. Industry veterans François Alaux, Olivier Blin, and Thomas Paincon will lead the nascent studio.

Ubisoft roots

All three previously worked at Ubisoft, with Alaux serving as a creative director at Ubisoft Reflections and prior to that working as a senior creative partner at the French publisher.

Blin, meanwhile, spent almost four years working as world director, narrative director, and content director on Beyond Good & Evil 2 at Ubisoft Montpellier. Before moving onto that project, he worked as creative content manager at Ubisoft's editorial department headquarters and served as senior international brand manager at Ubisoft Paris.

Finally, Paincon spent over at a decade at Ubisoft in a variety of roles, including a five year stint as operations director at Ubisoft Reflections.

Focus said the formation of Carpool Studio is part of a growth initiative that has also seen it establish Focus Production, a new movie and TV series production company.

According to the company, Focus Production seeks to "offer a new service to leverage gaming IPs from internal and external studios via partnerships with senior production companies who will also produce standalone projects."