Ubisoft acquires Tiwak

French publisher Ubisoft has acquired French developer Tiwak in a deal which has been consolidated since late December 2003, Ubi announced yesterday evening. Tiwak, based in Montpellier, currently employs 17 people and has previously worked on prehistoric adventure title Tork for Xbox, although that project was canned by Microsoft in April last year. Microsoft originally promised to help Tiwak find another publisher, but the announcement offers no hint that the Redmond behemoth had anything to do with the deal.

The release also makes no mention of resurrecting Tork, although back in April 2003 Tiwak CEO and president Yann Le Tensorer described the game as "almost finished", adding that "its excellent quality is recognised by almost everyone who has seen the game, and the playtest results are extremely promising." His promise that Tork would be released in fall 2003 however was never delivered upon.

Speaking in yesterday's statement, Le Tensorer said that the Ubisoft deal was important for Tiwak because "creating hits requires considerable resources, which Tiwak is no longer able to gather. We truly believe that by joining the Ubisoft group, this will allow Tiwak to reach a higher level in terms of quantity and quality, thanks to the expertise and the scale of a first rank group."

Whatever Ubisoft's plans for Tiwak, Tork's possible release is bound to be a point of debate.