French publisher Ubisoft today announced that it's acquired from Activision Blizzard all of the assets and all of the personnel of Swedish studio Massive Entertainment. This includes over 120 development staff and the critically acclaimed real-time strategy franchise World in Conflict.

Massive was founded in 1997 and was recently named in Game Developer Research's top 50 best game developers. The Sierra-owned studio joined Activision as part of the merger with Vivendi Games recently. Details of the Ubisoft transaction were not provided. The publisher did not disclose its full game development plans for Massive either.

"We are delighted to welcome the talented team of creators at Massive into the Ubisoft family," said Christine Burgess-Quemard, executive director of worldwide production studios at Ubisoft. "Ubisoft is growing at an intense pace and our strategy is to ensure the strength of our global creative teams. Massive has put together a group of some of the most confirmed and recognized creators in the industry and I know that their talent and innovation will allow them to seamlessly integrate into our worldwide network of production studios."

"Massive's development team places great importance on its freedom to innovate and create games of the highest quality," added Martin Walfisz, president and founder of Massive Entertainment. "We are fortunate to have found in Ubisoft a publisher who shares the same values and understands our mindset. I have no doubt that our future together will offer significant mutual benefit and synergy."