Publisher and developer Ubisoft officially announces another expansion across the globe by opening a brand new studio in Southeast Asia for the creation of future games.

Ubisoft has decided to not let Vivendi's attempt at a hostile takeover hinder its plans for progress. In fact, despite the current legal battle to defend itself against the French mass media multinational's effort to control the company, the game publisher and developer has now revealed its plans to expand operations in Southeast Asia by opening a studio in the Philippines.

Simply dubbed Ubisoft Philippines, the fresh branch is being founded as an additional set of hands to focus on collaboration and development of the company's forthcoming AAA console games. Primed to open in the second quarter of 2016 on the campus of De La Salle University in Santa Rosa Laguna under the management of five year company veteran Chip Go, the Philippines-based studio plans on hiring up to 50 employees within its first 12 months, with a goal of having a staff of 200 strong in five years' time.

This move to plant roots in the emerging game market of Southeast Asia will follow the firm's first production house in the region several years ago, as Ubisoft Singapore was established in 2008. Just recently, in fact, Ubisoft executive Olivier de Rotalier, explained that the Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag studio is working on a big AAA PC and console project for the company. Unfortunately, though, no further details were released regarding the forthcoming title, so there's no telling whether or not it will be a new IP or a game from the preexisting stable of Ubisoft franchises.

Although it's too early to tell what kind of releases the division in the Philippines will go on to make, it's safe to say that Ubisoft is confident when it comes to giving its newer studios a shot at producing big name properties upon establishment, so it wouldn't be strange to see a massive tent-pole title come from the subsidiary once it gets its bearings. After all, the Toronto studio opened in 2009 and began working on five major projects, with one being the popular Splinter Cell Blacklist.

At any rate, many fans would argue that the steps that Ubisoft took with its Massive branch to create The Division led to the company's best release in years. With that in mind, it's entirely possible for Ubisoft Philippines to try and mimic such success with a different property underneath the Tom Clancy umbrella, especially since the aforementioned action-MMO's game engine "Snowdrop" might be used in future games for Ubisoft.

What do you think about Ubisoft's opening of a new studio in the Philippines? What kind of games would you like to see come out of the freshly formed Asia-Pacific branch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Ubisoft's most recent release is The Division, which is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: IGN