Developer Virtuos is opening a brand new studio in Lyon, France.

The outfit is currently 12 people strong, with studio director Aurélian Kerbeci at the helm. He has previously worked at ELB Games, as well as founding Agharta back in 2008. Meanwhile, OSome and Eden Games vet Domenico Albani is serving as technical director.

"We're excited to welcome Aurélien, Domenico, and the rest of the talented founding team at Lyon to the Virtuos family," the head of Virtuous' games arm, Christophe Gandon, said.

"Not only is the team culturally aligned with Virtuos, they are also equipped with the deep engineering and domain expertise that will play a critical role in ensuring our continued success. With this expansion, we are well-positioned to accelerate our growth to meet and exceed the demands from our clients."

This comes in the wake of Virtuos buying animation specialist CounterPunch Studios 12 months ago. There are also reports that the Singapore-headquartered developer is working on a remake of Konami's Metal Gear Solid 3.