Ubisoft is reportedly working on a deal to sell off its majority stake to Epic Games parent company Tencent. According to Bloomberg, sources close to the matter have said that the Guillemot Brothers Ltd. have entered into negotiations with Tencent for a potential buyout. The rumor comes as Ubisoft’s latest AAA(A) game Star Wars Outlaws has reportedly flopped on an epic level. It has been said that the game has only sold enough units to equal $1 million of a $70 million budget, not including marketing costs. This follows another underwhelming number of sales for its adaptation of James Cameron’s blockbuster franchise, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Those two major investments by Ubisoft are not the only missteps to affect the publisher. Its many delays to launch its online naval and pirate adventure game Skull and Bones failed to capture a major player base and then there was also a proposed entry in the NFT market which never gained traction. From microtransactions to a game launcher many have complained about, Ubisoft has not done well in the PC marketplace for some time and except for occasional spikes of interest in its long-running Assassins Creed franchise the publisher has had numerous financial woes. Not long after news that Ubisoft is reportedly in talks with Tencent, Ubisoft’s shares rose the highest since its public offering in 1996.
Per Bloomberg:
- “The Chinese tech company and Guillemot Brothers Ltd. have been speaking with advisers to help explore ways to stabilize Ubisoft and bolster its value, the people said, asked not to be identified discussing a private matter.”
- “One of the possibilities being discussed would involve teaming up to take the company private, according to the people.”
- “Ubisoft shares rose as much as 33% in Paris on Friday following the Bloomberg News report, the steepest gain since the company’s 1996 initial public offering.”
A deal between the two could be thought of as a deal made, well, somewhere as feelings by PC gamers are not necessarily the best towards either. However, Ubisoft’s struggles over the last decade are well documented and Tencent’s resources are deep. While extreme changes could happen with such a deal it might actually be the Hail Mary Ubisoft needs to survive but only time will tell.
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Discussion (6 replies)
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OOof... man I don't want to see what Tencent does with those IP's.
"Grimlakin, post: 90142, member: 215" wrote:OOof... man I don't want to see what Tencent does with those IP's.
Can't be worse than what Ubisoft is doing with them.
Driver - shelved since 2011
Rainbow Six - shelved since 2008
Splinter Cell - shelved since 2013
That sucks. I don't want to buy games from Tencent or any other Chinese entity.
That said, Ubisoft wasn't exactly doing a stellar job on their own anyway, so maybe it is not a huge loss.
The only Ubisoft game series I can think of that I was actually into was Far Cry, and honestly I was growing tired of it. The franchise was starting to feel repetitive. Same game different scenery rinse and repeat. That was before 6. And with 6 they tried to change things up, but the results were disappointing. I thought that was one of the the weakest in the main series.
Other than that, I'm struggling to come up with Ubisoft titles I have actually played or even been interested in Playing. I mean, they seem to have acquired or stuck their fingers in a little of everything, but most of the things they have touched, they touched long after I played it.
Examples:
I Liked the first two "The Settlers" games (Die Siedler) but both of them were developed by Blue Byte before Ubisoft bought them out, and I never played the later Ubisoft era versions.
I also enjoyed the first twoWarlords games back in the early to mid 90's, but again, both of those were pre-Ubisoft. I never played any from the Ubisoft era.
Similarly, my friends and I went through a phase in the 90's when we enjoyed the first two Worms games. And again, haven't touched them in the Ubisoft era.
I only ever played the original Prince of Persia from 1989. (It was hard!)
And again, Ubisoft didn't touch that franchise until way later.
I also played the original Myst from 1993 (though admittedly, was not a fan) It too wasn't touched by Ubisoft until years later.
If reviewing their list of games for this post (to jog my memory) is telling me anything, it is that they are all over the map. SO many different games and styles. Maybe they'd do better if they just focused on one or a few related genres instead of trying to do everything.
I probably could have gotten into Rainbow Six had I given it the time, but I never did. Not quite sure why.
Tencent can't do any worse with the Ubisoft IPs than Ubisoft has been doing for the last half-decade or so.
Hmm...
I have played a couple of Funcom games. I dabbled in League of Legends and decided it wasn't for me. I've played Path of Exile and Black Desert Online off and on, but neither of those seriously. A few mobile games I had dabbled with here or there.
There's the 35% stake in Epic. And they already have a 10% stake in Ubisoft.
Tencent is absolutely massive, but most of what they are pushing isn't my style - a lot of it is mobile (or PC/console ports of primarily mobile titles) -- the big Chinese social media app and a lot of non-gaming stuff (big investment in BYD batteries/cars, for instance). So if they pick up Ubisoft... also not my style - seems like a good match to me.
"Brian_B, post: 90227, member: 96" wrote:Tencent is absolutely massive, but most of what they are pushing isn't my style - a lot of it is mobile (or PC/console ports of primarily mobile titles) -- the big Chinese social media app and a lot of non-gaming stuff (big investment in BYD batteries/cars, for instance). So if they pick up Ubisoft... also not my style - seems like a good match to me.
My biggest annoyance is the more eastern style of games (both artistically and content wise) which I have always disliked becoming more and more unavoidable.
...and having more and more games in the west become subject to authoritarian Chinese censorship laws is troubling. Sure, not every game needs to be about an independent Taiwan, but with their inclination to censor (or just nor create in the first place) content that offends the communist party of China (like Tom Cruise's ROC flag in Top Gun) that certainly will color the culture over time considering how influential games are these days, and that's a real problem.
I think it is a great danger in letting an authoritarian foreign nation take control of more and more of what is influential on our culture. And behind the scenes there is probably a fair bit of intent behind this on Tencents part.
Discussion (6 replies)
Join Discussion →OOof... man I don't want to see what Tencent does with those IP's.
Can't be worse than what Ubisoft is doing with them.
Driver - shelved since 2011
Rainbow Six - shelved since 2008
Splinter Cell - shelved since 2013
That sucks. I don't want to buy games from Tencent or any other Chinese entity.
That said, Ubisoft wasn't exactly doing a stellar job on their own anyway, so maybe it is not a huge loss.
The only Ubisoft game series I can think of that I was actually into was Far Cry, and honestly I was growing tired of it. The franchise was starting to feel repetitive. Same game different scenery rinse and repeat. That was before 6. And with 6 they tried to change things up, but the results were disappointing. I thought that was one of the the weakest in the main series.
Other than that, I'm struggling to come up with Ubisoft titles I have actually played or even been interested in Playing. I mean, they seem to have acquired or stuck their fingers in a little of everything, but most of the things they have touched, they touched long after I played it.
Examples:
I Liked the first two "The Settlers" games (Die Siedler) but both of them were developed by Blue Byte before Ubisoft bought them out, and I never played the later Ubisoft era versions.
I also enjoyed the first twoWarlords games back in the early to mid 90's, but again, both of those were pre-Ubisoft. I never played any from the Ubisoft era.
Similarly, my friends and I went through a phase in the 90's when we enjoyed the first two Worms games. And again, haven't touched them in the Ubisoft era.
I only ever played the original Prince of Persia from 1989. (It was hard!)
And again, Ubisoft didn't touch that franchise until way later.
I also played the original Myst from 1993 (though admittedly, was not a fan) It too wasn't touched by Ubisoft until years later.
If reviewing their list of games for this post (to jog my memory) is telling me anything, it is that they are all over the map. SO many different games and styles. Maybe they'd do better if they just focused on one or a few related genres instead of trying to do everything.
I probably could have gotten into Rainbow Six had I given it the time, but I never did. Not quite sure why.
Tencent can't do any worse with the Ubisoft IPs than Ubisoft has been doing for the last half-decade or so.
Hmm...
I have played a couple of Funcom games. I dabbled in League of Legends and decided it wasn't for me. I've played Path of Exile and Black Desert Online off and on, but neither of those seriously. A few mobile games I had dabbled with here or there.
There's the 35% stake in Epic. And they already have a 10% stake in Ubisoft.
Tencent is absolutely massive, but most of what they are pushing isn't my style - a lot of it is mobile (or PC/console ports of primarily mobile titles) -- the big Chinese social media app and a lot of non-gaming stuff (big investment in BYD batteries/cars, for instance). So if they pick up Ubisoft... also not my style - seems like a good match to me.
My biggest annoyance is the more eastern style of games (both artistically and content wise) which I have always disliked becoming more and more unavoidable.
...and having more and more games in the west become subject to authoritarian Chinese censorship laws is troubling. Sure, not every game needs to be about an independent Taiwan, but with their inclination to censor (or just nor create in the first place) content that offends the communist party of China (like Tom Cruise's ROC flag in Top Gun) that certainly will color the culture over time considering how influential games are these days, and that's a real problem.
I think it is a great danger in letting an authoritarian foreign nation take control of more and more of what is influential on our culture. And behind the scenes there is probably a fair bit of intent behind this on Tencents part.