Officials from French developer and publisher Ubisoft have announced that the company is to open a new internal development studio in Singapore, with the strong support of the local government citied as a key reason for the choice of location. The new offices will be Ubisoft’s eighteenth internal development studio, with the choice of Singapore apparently having been influence by the country’s “excellent technological infrastructure, thriving local game development industry and quality of its universities and training institutions”. The strong support of the Singaporean government is also said to be a key factor. The new studio will open in the early summer, with a core team of Ubisoft veterans being used to train the initial team – which is eventually expected to eventually grow to 300 employees. After this training period, the studio will begin to work closely with other Ubisoft studios on development of portable and home console titles. The managing director of the Singapore studio will be Olivier de Rotalier, who for the past four years has served as the company’s director of cost control for international production studios. “Singapore’s demonstrated interest and support for the video game industry made it a clear choice for Ubisoft’s continued international expansion. Not only is it capable of ensuring the training and continued development of a highly skilled workforce specialized in interactive digital media, its quality of life and level of industrialization makes it uniquely positioned to attract and retain talent from throughout the region,” said Christine Burgess-Quémard, executive director of worldwide studios at Ubisoft. "The digital media industry is key for Singapore and the development of high-growth, innovation-intensive sectors such as video games is of significant priority to us," added Manohar Khiatani, assistant managing director of the Singapore Economic Development Board. "We are confident that Ubisoft will be able to tap Singapore's talent base and unique cosmopolitan mix to design creative games for the global markets."