300Ubisoft has been vocal about its ambitions to storm the silver screen, and today it announced another step in that direction with the acquisition of Montreal-based special effects studio Hybride Technologies.

　　Hybride has lent its expertise to dozens of projects dating back to 1995, from Highlander: The Final Dimension to Snakes on a Plane. However, it is best known for its work on 300 and Robert Rodriguez films like Sin City and Spy Kids.

　　While Hybride will assist the publisher with attempts to bring its own game series to the big screen, it will continue to work for external partners in the film industry. The companies will also share technology and develop tools in tandem. Ubisoft projected Hybride's work for external companies to bring in €6-7 million ($9.4-11 million), with operating income roughly 10 percent of that figure.

　　"The future of our industry depends on our ability to create brands that captivate audiences and to extend those brands to other forms of entertainment," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a statement. "The acquisition of Hybride falls directly into the strategy that has already led us to open a digital creation studio in Montreal and to acquire the Tom Clancy brand for video games and ancillary products."

　　Ubisoft has a few more ties to the film industry at the moment. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer is working on a film adaptation of the publisher's hit Prince of Persia series, and the publisher is making a game based on James Cameron's upcoming film Avatar. That project looks to be more than a simple movie adaptation, as it will debut the publisher's latest 3D technology, which Cameron himself touted in a Microsoft advertising conference earlier this year. Guillemot said in an UbiDays presentation that gamers can expect to see the new tech next year.

　　Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.