Ontario invests in Toronto Ubisoft studio

The Ontario government is investing $263 million over 10 years to bring video game developer Ubisoft to Toronto — the French company's first Canadian expansion outside of Quebec and British Columbia. The investment, which is expected to create 800 new jobs over the next decade, strengthens southern Ontario's position as a growing industry hub for digital media. "This is an anchor investment, you have to think of it in terms kind of like landing an auto assembly plant," premier Dalton McGuinty said at a press conference in Toronto July 6. "It will catapult us a great distance forward." Ubisoft will also be investing more than $500 million in the new studio, which is set to open before the end of 2009. Economic development minister Sandra Pupatello told The Canadian Press the investment was similar to the digital tax credit, but handled somewhat differently to allow the deal to close faster. Ubisoft Toronto will be overseen by Yannis Mallat, CEO at Ubisoft Montreal....