Norwegian video game developer Funcom has opened a studio in Bucharest, serving as the company’s headquarters for quality assurance (QA). Plans are in place to expand to other areas of game development over time.

Ionuț Codreanu has been appointed head of the studio in Bucharest. He previously worked with Vivendi, Bandai Namco and Ubisoft.

“We are happy to have found the right person to open a studio in Bucharest. Ionuț has a wealth of experience in the Romanian gaming market, having worked for more than 17 years in companies such as Vivendi, Bandai Namco and Ubisoft. We trust Ionuț will turn Funcom Bucharest into an important player. The Bucharest studio will be involved in developing projects such as Dune, Conan Exiles, and more,” Rui Casais, CEO of Funcom, said.

Codreanu’s priority is to find the right people for the Bucharest studio, according to a release from Funcom. “The first colleagues are already here, and we started the activity. We continue to look for talented people to reach our very ambitious objectives. We want to build a testing department that will work alongside the production teams to make sure we deliver games at the highest standard of quality. At the same time, we are establishing an automation team that will make the way we develop and test games more efficient. To get there, we want to bring in people with experience, willing to develop new abilities and work with the newest technologies,” he said.

Funcom is known for games such as Conan Exiles, Secret World Legends, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, The Longest Journey, Anarchy Online, The Park and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The Bucharest team will work on brands such as Conan and Dune, the company said.

(Photo courtesy of the company)

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