Ubisoft’s Singapore studio, which was founded in 2008 and has contributed to the development of games in a number of the publisher’s biggest franchises, is now leading development on a big new PC and console project.

Ubisoft Singapore is credited with leading development on naval battles

Speaking at GDC, Olivier de Rotalier, managing director for Ubisoft’s Singapore and Southeast Asia, revealed the company’s intention to establish a new development studio in the Philippines. As part of the announcement he shared some details about the current state of the Singapore studio.

“We’ve been very happy to be involved in many titles,” he said. “We’ve built two main expertise in Singapore: one in AAA games, the other in PC online with Ghost Recon: Phantoms.

“We’ve built 10 AAA games in seven years,” he continued. “And now our studio is leading one of the biggest Ubisoft projects on console and PC.”

It is unclear whether the game in question is part of an existing franchise, or if it is a new property developed by the Singapore studio. GameSpot has asked Ubisoft for clarification.

The Singapore studio is most notable for creating Assassin’s Creed 3‘s naval battles, which went on to become a key pillar of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Rogue‘s gameplay.

Ubisoft’s new studio in the Philippines marks an expansion in the Southeast Asian territory which, according to Rotalier is “a fast-growing market in the gaming industry” and has a “young and growing population that is very connected and creative.”

Ubisoft is moving experienced Filipino developers from its Singapore studio to the new Philippines studio to give it a strong foundation to build on.

“We have, in Singapore, a team with people from the Philippines who have grown in expertise with us. We’ve built a solid work relationship and trust with them, and that’s an important core for us to start a new studio.

“Some of them will transfer to the Philippines to bring the Ubisoft knowhow, methodology, and knowledge to the studio … Leveraging the team in Singapore to train and groom the people in the [Philippines] is a key part of what we’re doing.

“[The studio manager, Chip Go] is already someone that worked in Singapore and will bring his knowledge of the group, company, and process. We want to expose [the developers] to our major AAA franchise … that’ll be the best way to expose them to the best standards of the industry and the best people to learn from. Also, [they can work] on the best technology that we have.”

According to Rotalier, Ubisoft is planning to have 50 developers at the Philippines studio by the end of 2016, and then grow to a total of 200 people.

In other Ubisoft news, in February chief executive Yves Guillemot confirmed rumours it is not releasing a new entry in the mainline Assassin’s Creed series in 2016. Instead, it is giving its developers the time to “[take advantage of all the new technologies” and “the brand a new dimension.”

An Ubisoft blog post added: “This year, we are stepping back and re-examining the Assassin’s Creed franchise … Since the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity, we’ve learned a lot based on your feedback. We’ve also updated our development processes and recommitted to making Assassin’s Creed a premier open-world franchise.

“We’re taking this year to evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we’re delivering on the promise of Assassin’s Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay experiences that make history everyone’s playground.”

Watch Dogs 2, meanwhile, is expected to will launch before the end of April 2017. Ubisoft’s fiscal 16/17 games slate also includes For Honor, South Park: The Fractured But Whole, and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands.