Ubisoft gets Ukrainian foothold

Ubisoft may be a French company, but the publisher is about as global as it gets. Today the company heralded the latest expansion of its multinational internal-development studio system: a new studio in Kiev, Ukraine. Built upon a core group of a dozen developers, the Kiev studio will expand to a staff of 50 within the next year.

The Kiev team has already supported development efforts on the PC version of Blazing Angels: Secret Missions of WWII. It will likewise contribute to the PC edition of its modern-day successor, Tom Clancy's HAWX, working with the Romanian arm of the publisher, Ubisoft Bucharest. Between those two teams and Bulgarian branch Ubisoft Sofia, the publisher plans to grow its Eastern European presence to more than 800 employees by 2009.

For more on the Kiev studio's previous effort, check out GameSpot's review of Blazing Angels: Secret Missions of WWII.