Hold on to your games, boys, the Russians are here. According to a report in today’s trades, Russia’s largest game developer, Nival Interactive, has picked Los Angeles for its new worldwide headquarters. Not much of a surprise as Los Angeles is, despite Canada and outsourcing to India, still the entertainment capital of the world. And where better to kick it game-style than in Entertainment Art’s backyard?

Nival is in transition literally and figuratively as it moves on from PC game development to current- and next-generation console games and wireless games and entertainment.

Kevin Bachus, one of the co-creators of Microsoft’s Xbox, is the CEO of the new U.S. management team. Bachus says Nival plans to expand its U.S. team to as many as 36 employees by the end of the year, as more projects, both original and Hollywood-licensed, get the go-ahead.

Bachus tells the Hollywood Reporter that conversations have already started with one Hollywood studio interested in working on a property and then shopping it to a publisher for distribution.

“We’re not going to stop at just games, but provide wireless entertainment packages that include ringtones, wallpapers, video clips and music downloads that exploit a Hollywood TV or movie property to the fullest potential,” Bachus says.

Nival’s 300 Moscow employees, account for about 10% of the Russian game-development community. The company has shipped 15 games in its 10-year life including the Heroes of Might and Magic, Blitzkrieg, Hammer & Sickle and Blitzkrieg II.