More than 90 percent of Chinese computer game players are young men and they may be surprised to find out that Ubisoft China's head is a middle-aged French woman.

　　Corinne Le Roy, who joined Ubisoft in 1996 from a public health firm, was appointed managing director of Ubisoft Shanghai a year later with her main task being to open China's game market.

　　Her appointment marked the European game giant's pioneering moves into the Chinese market as the No. 1 wholly foreign-invested company in the country's game industry.

　　"I made the decision as I was confident of the company (Ubisoft) and, of course, the game industry," said Le Roy in her Shanghai office on Changle Road.

　　She said that though she was previously in the public health industry, "I believe the basic management style is the same."

　　At present, Ubisoft is Europe's third-biggest game designer and publisher with annual sales of 538 million euros (US$667 million).

　　Its products include the popular "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six" and "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell" on various platforms from personal computer, Sony's PS game console to Microsoft's Xbox console.

　　Le Roy expects the annual growth rate of the domestic game market to be about 30 percent and Ubisoft China will at least "follow the speed of market development."

　　"The trend in the market is from offline to online game and we will participate in the wave," Le Roy said.

　　She plans to expand the company's Shanghai research studio, from 530 people currently to more than 1,000 by end of 2006. After that, the Shanghai studio will become the No. 2 among Ubisoft's 13 global research studios behind the Canadian studio.

　　Le Roy also intends to open several small-scale studios in other cities including Beijing, Hangzhou and Tianjin.

　　At present, more than 90 percent of Le Roy's employees in Shanghai, including game designers, graphic artists and sound directors, are local people. They are currently working on seven new games, including one online game.

　　She said the company is set to launch an MMORPG (massive multi-player online role playing game) product in the middle of next year, the first time Ubisoft will launch such a game in China which has a 100 million Internet users.

　　The game is based on a Chinese movie called Wuji (The Promise), which is directed by popular director Chen Kaige, so it is rooted by Chinese culture and designed with "strong game effects Chinese players have never seen," according to Le Roy.

　　On the other hand, Le Roy is aware of the massive challenges the company faces in the country including the opaque game censor system and piracy.

　　"It will take us one to four months to get approval from the Chinese government to distribute our products in the country," said Le Roy.

　　"We found the pirated discs (from overseas market) in the street even before we officially released the games in China."

　　Le Roy said she and her team are negotiating with Chinese bureaus, like the General Administration of Press and Publication, to make possible the release of new games at the same time globally.