Exclusive With Ubisoft & Twofour54 Pioneering Game Development in the Middle East (DWGE 2012)

Abu_dhabi_gamedevelopment

Once upon a time, game development used to be a very niche market. Software developers who went rogue in the late 70’s “to build programs for fun” had no idea that they will be kick starting a multi-billion dollar industry. Game Development has since become a serious business expanding to the reaches of Montréal, Japan, Europe, Korea, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and now the Middle East. Veteran Game company Ubisoft, and with the collaboration of Twofour54, will be pioneering and pushing for what many hope to be the first AAA game development company in the region.

I sat down with Ubisoft Abu Dhabi Managing Director, Yannick Theler, to discuss more about game development in the region and what it means to Ubisoft Abu Dhabi’s future goals.

The keyword is inspiration. Knowing that a AAA game company has set its foot in the Middle East will surely encourage more to follow. However, the biggest obstacle is getting people to learn game development– its one thing to play games but it takes a whole different mindset to make them.  Yannick explained to me how they have four-trimester course set up with SAE Institute which aims to get people up to speed. After that students will have the opportunity to join Ubisoft Abu Dhabi as an intern to further develop their skills or pursue their own goals. This of course makes things even more exciting as now we are dealing with the prospect of having indie developers and possibly indie companies in the region.  Make sure to watch our past interview with a SAE representative here to learn more about their courses.

The last thing I wanted note, which I’m sure many of you are wondering, is the hope of creating your own new IP.  Mr. Theler said it best himself “It’s a dream for any studio to create their own unique game” which he then followed by stating that they would first need to start somewhere.  So if you are hoping to create the next Metal Gear, well, it won’t exactly be a cake walk. But that’s pretty much expected. Anyone wishing to join the industry and go big would need to be determined and ready to take on the challenge.

Make sure to watch the full interview below with Mr. Theler to learn more.

Check the SAE brochure here if you are interested in joining.

Abu Dhabi Image Source

Author: The Arab Gamer View all posts by
Gaming from the Arab world, ya aziz!

3 Comments on "Exclusive With Ubisoft & Twofour54 Pioneering Game Development in the Middle East (DWGE 2012)"

  1. Fatima A. Al-Ansari December 4, 2012 at 12:30 PM - Reply

    I’m going to show this to my sis, she wants to specialize in game development in a few years!

    • The Arab Gamer December 4, 2012 at 3:15 PM - Reply

      Great! Don’t forget to show her the brochure. (link above)

  2. Zainab Al-Ansari December 4, 2012 at 2:03 PM - Reply

    sweet! didn’t know about SAE, want to learn game dev but thought I’d have to go to a faraway place like Canada or Japan, but seems like I don’t have to! 😀