Ubisoft Shanghai is one of Ubisoft's largest studios—with over 400 people—and also one of its earliest expansions since the company's humble beginnings. It actually opened prior to Ubisoft Montreal (a whole year earlier, in 1996.) And yet, the studio and its head, managing director Corinne Le Roy, have a lower profile than many would expect. Here, Le Roy fills us in on the trials and tribulations of starting a company from scratch in China in the mid-90s, how the company operates now, and why Ubisoft Shanghai is more than just an asset farm.

Why did you come to China?

Corinne Le Roy: I came to China in 1996 on the request of Yves Guillermot, who at that time wanted to develop the Chinese market and start creating games in China. I started my career here in Ubisoft by publishing Ubisoft games, mainly PC games, in the Chinese market. Since 2002, I've mainly concentrated on development of the studio in Shanghai and supporting the business in China.

Before you came to China, were you at Ubisoft?

No, before I came to China I was with something completely different. I came from public arts—in fact I studied economics, and I became a nurse, a pediatric nurse. I worked for Doctors without Borders, and I was in charge because from early on I loved management. I love supporting people. I love orchestrating things.

So I did management for a few years for Doctors without Borders in different countries. I did it in Lebananon, I did it in West Africa, in Syria and I did it for my two last years in south of Russia.  So I was in charge of teams in all those different countries. I went back to Paris and I was preparing to do a masters in Public Arts.

I knew Yves [Guillemot] pretty well, and Yves told me, "Don't you want to open Ubisoft for me in China?" I said, "Pardon me?" On one side, I liked it because Ubisoft was very small then, and since I knew Ubisoft from the beginning… still, I didn't expect that he would propose for me to come and develop the comany here. But I was able to develop a location for Doctors without Borders in the former USSR, and Yves thought that Russia was probably pretty similar at that time to China and that I had probably the experience to start Ubisoft here. So I came here and I moved from a charity organization to video games. 

Had you been in China before? 

No. 

What was it like to come to China in 1996 and have to build something up from nothing?

My boyfriend at that time was working in Afghanistan. I leave Paris one day with my suitcase. I start in Pakistan. I went to the border, I went to say hello to him. And I said, "Okay, I'm going to China." I arrived in Shanghai a few days later and book a hotel. Of course very quickly I made a few contacts, because I prepared for the trip before coming here. I had contact with a few people at Intel; I had a few Chinese contacts. I started by recruiting an assistant. And when I had an assistant, step by step we started a company here.

Ubisoft Shanghai managing director Corinne Le Roy

So what was the process of starting a western company in China at that time?

First, I did two things, because I arrived in April. I knew that I would find a way to set up a company. But first we had three games that we planned to launch in China, and we started localizing them.  For the first six months, I had no official company, but I could do things. I could pay translators. So I started with those three first games for the first six months.

Do you remember what those first three games were?

Yeah, it was Rayman. It was Pod, a racing game. And the third one was Kiko [World Football]. So I had those things on track already.  And on the other side, I met a consulting firm in town, which was helping us meet with local companies so we could create our own offical company [Ed's note: China generally requires foreign companies have a local partner to legally operate in China] But it was not Yves' plan at that time to set up a joint venture. Week after week, I meet people. I met some Chinese, I met some foreigners who set up companies here, I met some consultants. I knew that it was difficult to open a wholly-owned foreign enterprise. So I made a Chinese friend, who told me, "Okay, if you want I can introduce you to some Chinese officials."

I went to a specific district in Shanghai. I explained who was Ubisoft, what we were doing, what was our plan in China, because in China we were moving two directions at that time already. On one side, it was our team localizing games in Chinese and commercializing those games in China, and two, we wanted to start doing game animations in China. The first secretaries of the Communist party that I met, including the official from the area, were quite interested. As soon as you have that, you have a specific filing to register the company with the official Ubisoft documents that I got from France. And step by step we did the official administrative application to register the company. I started it probably in August and by December 25, 1996, the company was registered and I was able to recruit official employees in China.