The latest twist in the ongoing Ubisoft drama has occurred today, with outlet Bloomberg delivering a fresh report on what's happening behind the scenes at the French game maker.
According to this new report, Ubisoft's founders — the Guillemot family — along with major shareholder Tencent, are considering spinning up "a new venture" relating to Ubisoft. This 'venture' could include bringing over some famous Ubisoft franchises "as they seek to boost the French video-game company’s value", the report says.
To be clear, we're not entirely sure what's actually meant by 'a new venture', and the report is quite vague on details as well. What it does say, is that "a potential deal would allow Tencent to own a stake in the venture and gain more control over some of Ubisoft’s intellectual properties" - which sounds like the existing ownership structure at Ubisoft could be the real issue.
While the root of the problem isn't exactly clear, we do know that Ubisoft is indeed looking for investors. Last week, amidst the latest delay for Assassin's Creed Shadows, the company said that it will "pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders" - basically, it wants the most money it can get for its games and IP if a deal were to happen.
Finally, Bloomberg says that "deliberations are ongoing and no final decisions have been made", according to sources that spoke with the outlet. When asked to comment, Ubisoft simply referred back to its statement last week that coincided with the latest AC Shadows delay.
Thoughts on all of this corporate talk, PX fans? Discuss the future of Ubisoft down below.
[source bloomberg.com]
Comments 19
Ubisoft just make the same kind of boring bloated games and they have for years nothing since the 360 days has interested me!
Feels like it’s a matter of when and not if …. not a business person but this could be a get around French ownership rules than a “venture”
to be honest, while it could ubisoft afloat, it may be for tecenet to have more free reign on some ips
@Ricky-Spanish
The new Prince of Persia is a masterpiece if you like Metroidvanias.
@Ricky-Spanish And that's the root of the problem in this kind of situation. When a publisher puts out something new or different, the masses dive in and consume it. But if they don't continue to be innovative, if they rely on the same thing over and over, then half their customer base (or more) will leave them. They're left with a group of dedicated fans of their content, but the company continues to hold up mass success as the yard stick. Those fans will never buy enough to keep investment coming in.
Tale as old as capitalism.
Bring AC multiplayer back!!
@Ricky-Spanish the last ac worth playing was AC4 imo.
which is also a 360 game, haha
I like Ubisoft. They make some of the safest games to recommend to friends. Solid 7 or 8 out of 10 games with lots of content.
As for the new business venture, who knows what that could be. AC the card game? Rayman bath soaps? Watchdogs dog sitting service?
@Lup I don't unfortunately haha!
@BacklogBrad I would just love see another ghost recon wildlands. That game was incredible and lots fun.
@Ricky-Spanish @Lup I'm with Ricky on this one. I stopped playing those kinds of games decades ago. Jumping over lava pits no longer interests me.
Shame because hear nothing but great things about that game.
After how they treated XDefiant I could care less about Ubisoft. Hopefully XDeifant is one of those IPs.
@GuyinPA75 The new fresh new games farcry and assassin's creed need to be rested a few years and rebooted they have gone stale they couldn't even sell a star wars game that says it all!
@Ricky-Spanish Honestly didn't even read reviews for Outlaws. Was it bad? Disappointing as really looked forward getting around to it once got thru some backlog.
Asassin creed odysey is still the best AC game i played ever.
Didnt like valhalla very much.
I really hope Shadows will be done right.
Star Wars Outlaws is an amazing game. One of my all time favorites. Assassin's Creed Odyssey was the best in the series. But yeah, the Far Cry and Assassin's Creed formulas are very stale now. Outlaws took the AC formula in a great direction. Smaller, no stupid fetch quests and very story driven with great original characters and great writing. They badly need a new IP though.
@GuyinPA75 I've been enjoying the hell out of it
Sounds like an attempt to spin off profitable IPs and studios to a new entity that has outside investors while leaving the core company in financial trouble so it can eventually file for whatever the equivalent of chapter 11 bankruptcy is in France and potentially liquidate those assets without losing control of the viable business.
As for Ubisoft games, I personally have not been disappointed on any Far Cry or Assassin's Creed game (ok maybe Unity was a bit disappointing). Never understood why so many hate the games.
@GuyinPA75 The reviews I seen said it's decent but just looks a typical bloat ubisoft title to me and it sold very badly!
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