Virtuos

Virtuos was estabilished in Shanghai in December 2004, and opened its European office in Paris in July 2005. In June 2006, it received investment from Legend Capital.[3] Virtuos opened its Los Angeles office in November 2006, and its Chengdu office in January 2008.[4] In March 2009, the company acquired BSP Audio Production Studios.[5] In May 2009 Terminator Salvation was released in theaters. featuring 3D art made by Virtuos.

Virtuos entered Japan after signing a partnership with Kyos in December 2009. In March 2010, it reached 500 employees,[6] and announced new-gen work-for-hire game development.[7][8] In May 2010, the company ported The Price is Right to the PlayStation Network.

Virtuos produced Monster Jam: Path of Destruction for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. Subsequently, it reached 800 employees and signed a work-for-hire online game development agreement with Tencent in August 2011. Virtuos acquired Sparx* 3D animation studio in September 2011, increasing its employee count to over 900.

In July 2012, Virtuos released its first fully developed Facebook game - The Enchanted Library for GSN. Three months later, in October 2012, it hired its 1000th employee. In November 2012. Virtuos released its first Android game, NBA 2013, for client 2K sports on the Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. In July 2013, Virtuos opened office in San Francisco.

Virtuos ported XCOM: Enemy Unknown to IOS 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.[9] Virtuos also developed adaptations of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 for the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in April 2014. These received an 85% Metacritic score.[10]

In July 2016, Virtuos ported Batman: Return To Arkham to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. In March 2018, it raised $15M and set up a new headquarters and R&D center in Singapore. In October 2020, the company acquired Counterpunch Studios.

Virtuos secured $150M investment from Baring Private Equity Asia in September 2021. It subsequently opened second studio in Lyon, France in December 2021.[11] In January 2022, Virtuos acquired Volmi Games in Kyiv, Ukraine.

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]

• Interview with Virtuos CEO Gilles Langourieux
• 2011 feature story on Virtuos by Gamasutra