eToychest is reporting that Ubisoft is opening a new studio in Quebec that will be dedicated to creating CGI short films to tie in with their large catalog of games. The first Ubisoft title to get the movie treatment will be the upcoming Assassin's Creed and although other games have yet to be announced, you can bet that Prince of Persia will be in the mix somewhere. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot spoke about the studio in a recent press conference.

Video game production has progressively moved closer and closer to film and television production and this convergence will only intensify in the coming years," commented Guillemot. "This natural evolution is accompanied by revolutionary changes in online distribution channels via the explosion of free and paid-for digital content. Today's launch of a studio specializing in digital film creation will allow Ubisoft to be a pioneer in the domain for the years to come.

The new venture will provide a lot new jobs for the Canadian job market with a possible 3,000 positions in the company as a whole by 2013. Ubisoft plans to sink quite a wad of cash into their new baby, so let's hope that it pays off with some really great content. If we're lucky, perhaps companies will start using this sort of thing for their marketing purposes and we'll see the end of all this awful "viral video" crap. Flynn De Marco

Ubisoft Opens CGI-Only Movie Studio [eToychest]
Ubisoft expansion may create 1,000 Quebec positions [Globe and Mail]

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