Ubisoft Spins Out Subsidiary With a Billion-Dollar Investment From Tencent (engadget.com)
- Reference: 0176842095
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/03/27/239223/ubisoft-spins-out-subsidiary-with-a-billion-dollar-investment-from-tencent
- Source link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisoft-spins-out-subsidiary-with-a-billion-dollar-investment-from-tencent-183516992.html
> This new business will receive an investment of 1.16 billion-euro (roughly $1.25 billion) from its longstanding partner Tencent, granting the conglomerate a minority ownership stake. Following the transaction, Ubisoft will narrow focus to its other franchises, such as The Division and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. [...] There is some extra good news in the announcement. The description of the new subsidiary does specify that "it will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences." So while we can expect to also see multiplayer and free-to-play offerings from the Ubisoft umbrella, they aren't giving up on single-player games.
"Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history," CEO and Co-Founder Yves Guillemot said. "As we accelerate the company's transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft's operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious."
[1] https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisoft-spins-out-subsidiary-with-a-billion-dollar-investment-from-tencent-183516992.html
Beyond the fancy corpo-wording... (Score:2)
... this just means Ubisoft needs to sell its most valuable franchises (in slices) to raise some money to survive at all, while preparing for big layoffs in the large worthless part of the company that is not attracting investor money (like the new franchise-owning "subsidiary" does).
And it tells us that "AC Shadows" is not selling as great as some want to make us believe, but the truth about that will remain a closely guarded secret up until the next shareholder conference.
Re: (Score:2)
They haven't sold them yet, if Tencent is taking a minority stake, but this is definitely the first step in that direction.
A lot of how The West has remained on top is media dominance. Video games are now much of that media. Every single thing about the messaging of the Assassins Creed series is problematic for right wing leaders. Far Cry and Rainbow Six aren't exactly friendly to fascism in their rhetoric, either.
Salvaging from a wreck (Score:2)
Only time will tell if what they salvaged is worth saving.
I would bet this is a waste of money. It would be better to just buy the IP of the games and develop them entirely within China.
In the past two years, you can tell if a game was developed in Asia just by looking at the main character of the game.
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I mean the graphics engine of AC Shadows does look good, and so do the graphics assets. So essentially they would need to replace the game mechanics designers and story writers, plus of course the C-level, who proactively tried to alienate the customer base.
Silver Lining (Score:2)
Maybe Tencent will help reverse Ubisoft's hamfisting of "the message" to gamers and get back to making games that aren't thinly veiled preachy lectures
Re: (Score:1)
The what? What "message" are we supposed to be getting? Or is this just another MAGA rant with no basis in reality?
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Uh... what is the basis for saying "The most recent flop from Ubisoft is Assassin's Creed in feudal Japan"? From what I'm reading it is actually one of Ubisoft's very
few recent success stories.
[1]https://variety.com/2025/gamin... [variety.com]
You know what amuses me about you folks who constantly cry about DEI like little babies? Its almost always totally irrevant to whatever you're talking about. Ubisoft's poor game sales were never from DEI but from boring, bad games that copied the same gameplay over and over. But gettin
[1] https://variety.com/2025/gaming/news/assassins-creed-shadows-second-highest-ubisoft-video-game-1236346656/
Re: (Score:2)
One of the messages from the Ubisoft management was that [1]the gamers should get used to not owning their games [steamcommunity.com]. And apparently they did, pretty fast. And now Ubisoft gets used to also not own their games. It was strange to see a CEO basically telling his customer base to fuck off, but ok, so shall be it.
[1] https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/12/7119694909428128764/
Re: (Score:2)
Or maybe Tencent will lose all their money. Seems like a win to me!