French publisher Ubisoft has opened a brand new studio in Sweden and has tapped some impressive development talent to lead it.

The firm announced its Nordic expansion in a blog post, in which it also revealed that former EA DICE studio manager Patrick Bach was going to be heading up the studio.

Bach departed the EA studio at the end of last year in order to spend more time with his family.

Ubisoft says its new Stockholm outpost will be working closely with fellow Sweden-based Massive, which is based in Malmö, and that the Stockholm studio is hiring 100 people over the next two years.

“Stockholm is one of the great gaming hubs of the world with a huge pool of experienced and creative talent,” Bach said.

“That together with an international buzz and a great atmosphere makes Stockholm a very unique place to create amazing games.”

He continued: “The focus is to create great games of course, including working with Massive on the recently announced Avatar game. To make great games you need a great team, a clear vision, great working conditions and a company backing you and supporting those pillars. I think we’ve got all those ingredients combined to make this studio a success, and offer something new on the dev scene in Stockholm.”