Virtuos

Virtuos Ltd

Type	Private
Industry	Digital entertainment
Founded	December 2004
Key people	Gilles Langourieux, CEO Pan Feng, Managing Director Andrey Supryaga, Managing Director Christophe Gandon, GM Europe
Number of employees	1000+[1]
Website	www.virtuosgames.com

Virtuos Ltd. is a video game developer and a provider of digital entertainment production services for the game and movie industries. The company was founded in 2004. Virtuos has development centers in Shanghai, Chengdu, and Xi'an, China, and in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and offices in Paris, Vancouver and Tokyo.

Its services include 3D art, concept art and animation, full game co-development and adaptations, software engineering, sound design and QA testing. As a video game developer, Virtuos creates both parts of games as well as full game “co-development,” which includes porting and adaptations.^[2] Virtuos is a licensed developer on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, NDS and PSP. Virtuos' clients include 15 of the top 20 digital entertainment publishers.^[3] Its clients include Activision, Electronic Arts, LucasArts, Microsoft, Sony, Square Enix, Ubisoft and Zynga. To date, Virtuos has co-developed two games noted more than 85 on Metacritic: Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster scored 85 on PS3 and PS Vita, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown scored 95 on iOS.

In September 2011, Virtuos acquired Sparx Animation Studios and added a Saigon development center dedicated to 3D animation, digital production for film and TV and game cinematics.

Games co-developed by Virtuos

History of Virtuos

• December 2004: Virtuos is established
• July 2005: Virtuos opens its European office in Paris: Gamesource
• June 2006: Virtuos receives investment from Legend Capital^[4]
• November 2006: Virtuos opens its North-American office in Los Angeles
• January 2008: Virtuos opens in Chengdu^[5]
• March 2009: Virtuos acquires BSP Audio Production Studios^[6]
• May 2009: Terminator Salvation is released in theaters, featuring 3D art made by Virtuos
• December 2009: Virtuos enters Japan, signing partnership with Kyos
• March 2010: Virtuos reaches 500 employees^[7]
• March 2010: Virtuos announces new-gen work-for-hire game development^[8][9]
• May 2010: Virtuos releases The Price is Right on PSN
• November 2010: Virtuos ships Monster Jam: Path of Destruction for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, NDS and PSP
• January 2011: Virtuos receives China SME Entrepreneur Award 2010
• March 2011: Rango reaches the top box office spot, including 3D models from Virtuos
• August 2011: Virtuos reaches 800 Staff, and signs work-for-hire online game development agreement with Tencent
• September 2011: Virtuos acquires Sparx* 3D animation studio
• March 2012: Virtuos 900th employee is hired in Saigon for Sparx subsidiary.
• July 2012: Virtuos releases first fully developed Facebook game The Enchanted Library for GSN
• October 2012: Virtuos 1000th employee is hired.
• November 2012: Virtuos first Android game NBA 2013 released for client 2K Sports on Wii, NDS and PSP
• June 2013: Virtuos opens office in San Francisco
• October 2013: XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Virtuos developed the port from X360 to iOs of Enemy Unknown and it wins the 2013 Golden Joystick Award for best Mobile/Tablet Game of the Year
• December 2013: Virtuos developed Fangs Dash releases for China Mobile Game Entertainment on Chinese appstores^[10]
• April 2014: Virtuos developed the adaptation of FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD for PS3 and PS Vita with 85% Metacritic score^[11]

Controversy

As a prominent game outsourcing company, Virtuos has occasionally found itself at the center of the debate about outsourcing’s impact on game-industry jobs in the west. When asked about the issue by gaming industry website Gamasutra in 2006, Gilles Langourieux, the CEO of Virtuos pointed to the extra number of man-months required to produce titles on new-gen platforms and the larger number of platforms to cover as the main reasons for the rise of outsourced production, stating that he "doesn't think it's a disservice to the industry in the West."^[12]

References

External links

• Company Website
• Sparx* Website
• Interview with Virtuos CEO Gilles Langourieux
• 2011 feature story on Virtuos by Gamasutra