Ubisoft Acquires Massive Entertainment

Sweden meets France as the fallout of the Activision-Blizzard merger continues.

In July 2008, publishing giant Activision Blizzard announced that it would be dropping all but five titles currently in development under its subsidiary, Vivendi Games. Of one of the many noteworthy titles dropped, Massive Entertainment's World In Conflict: Soviet Assault was one of them, leaving its future in the post-merger company all but certain. With Atari having recently snapped up its own piece of the former Vivendi titles, Ubisoft has stepped into the fray, announcing the acquirement of Swedish developer Massive Entertainment.

While the financial terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, Ubisoft's director of worldwide productions, Christine Burgess-Quemard is particularly pleased with the acquisition, stating that "their talent and innovation will allow them to seamlessly integrate into our worldwide network of production studios." What we do know is that the Ground Control developers will be entirely owned by Ubisoft as the deal covers the entirety of the company's assets and personnel.

Massive Entertainment's current project, World In Conflict: Soviet Assault, was originally planned for a holiday 2008 release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, though neither Ubisoft nor Massive have commented on a new release date.