Game developer Bioware is to create an additional 200 jobs in Galway as it prepares for one of the biggest game launches of the year.
The developer, which was bought by EA in 2008, already employs 200 people at the customer service centre in Galway, its first facility outside North America.
The facility is supporting Bioware's massively multiplayer online (MMO) game Star Wars: The Old Republic, an eagerly anticipated game that Bioware is launching in December.
Other titles developed by Bioware, which was established in 1995, include the popular Mass Effect and Dragon Age series.
Bioware co-founder Dr Ray Muzyka said Ireland will play an important part in the launch of what he described as "one of the biggest events in the history of video games".
The new roles will be recruited both within Ireland and the rest of Europe, with the centre supporting English, French and German speaking customers.
"Games have changed dramatically since we founded Bioware in the early 1990s. The tools we now have at our disposal make games more exciting, more immersive and even more accessible. The games keep better and better and the audiences keep getting bigger," said co-founder Dr Greg Zeschuk.
"We've seen a profound change in the responsibility developers have for their players. Ten years ago we created a quality game, shipped it to stores and started work on the next one. Today, launching a game is just the first event in a much deeper, longer relationship with the players."
Bioware said it had considered other locations, but chose Ireland because of a steady supply of high quality recruits with the necessary skills for the roles, and a good partnership with the Government.
"To support this game 24 hours a day, seven days a week requires a massive investment in money, infrastructure and of course incredibly talented, passionate people. We reviewed locations in many states, provinces and countries before making the decision," said Dr Muzyka. "Bioware is only as good as the people who make it and support it."
Attending the opening today, Taoiseach Enda Kenny welcomed the announcement of further job creation at the facility.
"This is a big vote of confidence in Ireland," he said. "From leadership perspective, when you consider that the gaming industry is expected to grow to a value of over €80 billion by 2015 globally, it does show you that Bioware are right at the very leading edge of that and their expansion here in Galway is going to add immensely to our own stock, our reputation abroad and the perception of being a country that is flexible and that can measure up in this new world."
More than 2,000 people are employed by the core video games sector in Ireland, and the Taoiseach promised new measures to grow this further.
"You are holding in your hands a really important part of the jigsaw of Ireland for the future," Mr Kenny told the Bioware founders. "We want that picture to be one of excellence, one of the highest standards, to be one that will be magnetic in its own way."
