Ubisoft pounces on Wolfpack

Ubisoft brought massively multiuplayer online game development in-house today when it acquired Austin-based Wolfpack Studios, makers of Shadowbane. Shadowbane and the game's expansion pack, The Rise of Chaos, are already published by Ubisoft and supported by ubi.com, its online game division.

"The acquisition of Wolfpack takes our strategy in the MMO segment one step further as it strengthens our internal expertise and it will allow us to develop quality content under our own brands, which we feel is critical to succeed in the long run, UBi.com's leader, Gilles Langourieux said in a statement.

Today's acquisition comes on the heels of recent developments in Ubisoft's presence in the MMO space. Last week, the company announced it would no longer publish the upcoming, Monolith-developed Matrix Online. The week before, the company canceled the online component of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.