Below is the text of the official announcement made today and released by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. As regular readers of gd.ie know this is not the ‘first’ overseas investment in console software development in Ireland (i.e. Funcom), but we certainly hope it is will provide the impetus for even further growth.<br /><br />’DC Studios to create 50 high quality jobs at the Digital Hub, Dublin<br /><br /><br />Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin TD today (Tuesday 12th April 2005) announced that DC Studios, a Canada based developer of video games for consoles, PCs and mobile phones, is to establish a Development Studio in the Digital Hub in Dublin, with the support of IDA Ireland. This will be Ireland’s first overseas investment in console software development, creating 50 high quality jobs over the next three years, mostly for experienced graduates including software programmers, artists, designers and producers.<br /><br />Minister Martin said “this investment is an excellent fit with IDA’s strategy of attracting knowledge intensive investments to Ireland. The digital media sector has been identified as an area of opportunity for this country and DC Studios, a young ambitious company, will be a valued addition to the growing cluster of digital media activities in Ireland, in particular games development.” <br /><br />The decision by DC Studios to locate in Dublin is a direct response to a substantial growth in its business, with many of its customers based in Europe. Mark Greenshields, CEO of DC Studios, sees Ireland, with its experienced pool of software skills and supportive business environment, as the ideal base to service this growing demand for the company’s services. As well as providing additional capacity, the Dublin facility will soon become a full turnkey development centre employing designers, producers, artists and programmers for developing complete games from conception to production. <br /><br />DC Studios’ primary business is content development work for major console games publishers such as Konami, Ubisoft and Hip Interactive. It also develops its own content and is currently working on a new football game, scheduled for launch later this year. It has developed proprietary games technology, including a market leading toolkit for cellular phones – Fire™. DC Studios, established in 1999, employs nearly 80 people at its headquarters in Montreal, Canada, and in satellite studios in Glasgow, Scotland and Bristol, England. For more information please visit <LINK><ADDRESS>http://www.dc-studios.com </ADDRESS><LTEXT>www.dc-studios.com </LTEXT></LINK>’