Archive notice: This article was originally published on February 4, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Action Pants Inc. was founded in 2006 by video-game industry veterans Simon Andrews, Nik Palmer and Omar al-Khafaji and currently employs more than 110 developers. Based in the emerging Yaletown district, the studio was named one of the region’s 50 best companies in 2008 and 2009. BC Business Magazine ranked Action Pants Inc. among the best companies to work for in British Columbia in 2007. The studio’s first title will appear in 2009: a sports game developed exclusively for Nintendo Wii. The game will help build on Ubisoft’s success in the sports genre following the successful launch of the Shaun White Snowboarding franchise.
“We have been following developments in Vancouver with great interest for some time. Our goal was to establish a presence in this region, which is so important to the industry, and benefit from its creative talent,” said Christine Burgess-Quemard, Executive Director of Ubisoft’s worldwide development studios. “The talent at Action Pants made the decision easy, and we are pleased to establish ourselves in the region through this acquisition and welcome an exceptionally talented development studio into our ranks. We look forward to enabling the Action Pants Inc. team to exchange creative ideas with our other studios around the world.”
“We are very excited about the new opportunities and see many advantages for our studio,” said Simon Andrews, co-founder and Executive Partner of Action Pants Inc. “Action Pants and Ubisoft share very similar values. Our employees will benefit from the new opportunities and possibilities created by this partnership, as will our future products.”
