World in Conflict (PC, 360, PS3) developer Massive Entertainment, which was bought by Ubisoft this week, has received the assignment of contributing to Ubisoft's MMO effort starting with "light MMOs."

"They are going to help us to also get closer to the MMO space," said Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot at a conference this week, according to Gamasutra. "In the future, we will come with RPGs and RTSes also in the MMO space."

Massive is known for the well-received RTS games World in Conflict and Ground Control, and Guillemot admitted that Massive's talent for strategy games is "extremely strong."

The studio joins the Ubisoft fold from previous owner Activision Blizzard, which put it on the selling block in August as part of a consolidation following the merger of the major-label publisher and the World of Warcraft developer.

"We bought [Massive Entertainment] from them because those guys are Blizzard, so they don't need that studio as much as we do," remarked Guillemot, referring to Blizzard's prowess in the strategy genre.

Massive Entertainment, developer of World in Conflict (PC, 360, PS3), has been bought by Ubisoft after being put up for sale back in August by previous owner Activision Blizzard.

"Ubisoft is growing at an intense pace and our strategy is to ensure the strength of our global creative teams," said Ubisoft executive Christine Burgess-Quemard in a statement obtained by GameSpot.

The French publisher is reportedly acquiring "the assets and all of the personnel" of the Swedish studio, signaling that the transition will be made without layoffs.

Activision Blizzard, for its part, reported a strong quarter just last week but made no mention of the transaction. Massive's future was put into question after Activision and Blizzard merged, necessitating a streamlining of the portfolio at owner Vivendi.

Massive is presumably still at work on Soviet Assault, an expansion to World in Conflict. The game was due this fall but suffered some setbacks from the sell-off, leaving its release date unknown.

Publisher Activision Blizzard is currently in talks for the sale of World in Conflict developer Massive Entertainment following the recently completed merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, studio executives told Videogaming247.

"It seems like we have plenty of options. We've had some good meetings here," said Massive founder and president Martin Walfisz. "Being a part of a merger like this is a strange situation, because obviously the new organization has to look over all of its assets, everything it owns and its strategy for the future."

Activision Blizzard revealed late last month that several titles owned by corporate component Vivendi would not make the transition to the newly-formed company, and that it would be "exploring options" concerning the Vivendi-owned studios... Read more