Virtuos acquires Russian concept art studio
Outsourcing firm signs up LucasArts, Ubisoft and EA as new clients
Shanghai-based outsourcing specialist Virtuos has acquired Russian concept art studio GRAFIT, gaining access to the studio's network of artists in Russia, Europe and Asia.
As a result of the acquisition, two senior GRAFIT staff members - concept art directors Roman Tulinov and Victor 'Hamsterfly' Titov - will relocate to Virtuos' Asian headquarters.
"Our clients have expressed a growing demand for concept art - for example, for levels of games we co-develop or characters we produce. But we wanted to wait to offer these services until we had assembled a really strong concept art team," said Virtuos art director Andrey Supryaga.
"The work that this team has delivered has been consistently impressive, and we are very excited to partner with them and officially launch our concept art studio," he added.
Virtuos concept art clients already include the likes of LucasArts, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Zynga. Virtuos has been steadily expanding its international reach in recent months and now boasts an international management team comprising experts of more than 10 different nationalities.
"Bringing together Virtuos' art production infrastructure with GRAFIT's expertise in concept art, we will be able to offer a more fully integrated art solution. We look forward to utilising these talents and contributing to the creative conceptualisation of more game and movie titles in the future," said Gilles Langourieux, CEO of Virtuos.