Virtuos is a global video game development company headquartered in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

with studios across

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. Virtuos specializes in game development and art production for AAA consoles, PC, and mobile titles – working as an external developer for other companies.

History

Virtuos was established in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

in December 2004, and opened its European office in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in July 2005. In June 2006, it received investment from

Legend Capital Legend Holdings Corporation () is a Chinese investment holding company with interests in finance, real estate, and information technology, and the controlling shareholder of its better-known associate company, the Lenovo Group. Formed by the Chin ...

. Virtuos opened its

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

office in January 2008 and Vancouver offices in January and November 2008, respectively. In March 2009, the company acquired BSP Audio Production Studios. In May 2009

Terminator Salvation ''Terminator Salvation'' is a 2009 American military science fiction action film directed by McG and written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris. It is the fourth installment of the ''Terminator'' franchise and serves as a sequel to '' Termin ...

was released in theaters. featuring 3D art made by Virtuos. Virtuos entered

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

after signing a partnership with Kyos in December 2009. In March 2010, it reached 500 employees, and announced new-gen work-for-hire game development. In May 2010, the company ported ''The Price is Right'' to the

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

. Virtuos produced Monster Jam: Path of Destruction for the

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

and

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

. Subsequently, it reached 800 employees and signed a work-for-hire online game development agreement with

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

in August 2011. Virtuos acquired Sparx* Animation Studios in September 2011, increasing its employee count to over 900. In 2012, Virtuos opened its Xi’an office in May and reached the 1,000 employees mark in October. Within the same year, Virtuos also released its first fully developed

Facebook game A social network game (sometimes simply referred to as a social media game, social gaming, social video game or online social game) is a type of online game that is played through social networks or social media. They typically feature multiplaye ...

- The Enchanted Library for GSN, as well as its first Android game, NBA 2013, for client 2K sports on the Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. In July 2013, Virtuos opened an office in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. Virtuos ported XCOM: Enemy Unknown to

IOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

in October 2013, and won the Golden Joystick Award for "best Mobile/Tablet Game of the Year". The company also developed Fangs Dash for China Mobile Game Entertainment in December 2013. Virtuos also developed adaptations of

Final Fantasy X is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square as the tenth main entry in the ''Final Fantasy'' series. Originally released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, the game was re-released as ''Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster'' for PlayStat ...

and

Final Fantasy X-2 is a 2003 role-playing video game developed and published by Square (video game company), Square for the PlayStation 2. Unlike most ''Final Fantasy'' games, which use self-contained stories and characters, ''X-2'' continues the story of ''Fin ...

for the

and

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

in April 2014. These received an 85%

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

score. In December 2014, Virtuos started its operations in Korea. In July 2016, Virtuos ported Batman: Return To Arkham to the

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

and

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

. In March 2018, it raised $15M and set up a new headquarters and R&D center in

. In October 2020, the company acquired Counterpunch Studios. Virtuos acquired Black Shamrock in February 2017. In March 2018, it raised $15M and set up a new headquarters and R&D center in Singapore. Virtuos Montreal was launched in September 2019. In October 2020, the company acquired CounterPunch Studios. Virtuos secured $150M investment from

Baring Private Equity Asia BPEA EQT (formerly known as Baring Private Equity Asia and BPEA) is an Asian private equity firm. Previously it was an affiliate of Barings Bank before becoming an independent firm. In 2022 it was acquired by EQT Partners to act as its Asian inve ...

in September 2021. It subsequently opened a new studio in

Lyon, France Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...

in December 2021. In January 2022, Virtuos acquired Volmi Games in

Kyiv, Ukraine Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the seventh-most populous city in Europe. Kyi ...

. In April 2022, Virtuos announced its investment in Umanaïa Interactive, an up-and-coming game development studio in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. In May 2022, it was announced that Virtuos had acquired the

Ho Chi Minh City , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

-based 2D and 3D art production company, Glass Egg Digital Media. That was followed by the official launch of Virtuos

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

in August 2021, and co-development studio Calypte — a Virtuos Studio in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

in September 2022.

References

External links

Interview with Virtuos CEO Gilles Langourieux

2011 feature story on Virtuos by Gamasutra
{{Authority control Video game companies established in 2004 Companies based in Shanghai Video game development companies Video game companies of China Video game companies of Singapore