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NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2025 16:03:38 +0000
From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Ubisoft + Tencent?
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2025 12:03:25 -0400
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Well, things must be bad at Ubisoft. After struggling with a string of
games that had only middling sales, fighting to keep control of the
company against hostile takeovers, and accusations of bad management,
now there are reports that Ubisoft is seeking investors to help with
some of its properties, including the Assassin Creed franchise. The
Chinese multimedia firm, Tencent, seems the most likely to take
Ubisoft up on the offer.*

These shenanigans don't really reflect the health of the company, of
course. Although some of its recent releases were tepid, the company
still made profit on all of them (no "Concord"-sized flop like Sony
faced). But the profits weren't as high as promised, and stakeholders
in the company are becoming restless and suggesting that maybe the
Guillemot family --which has a majority share in the company and has
controlled it since its inception-- should be pushed aside. This
offering has more the appearance of the Guillemots trying to bring in
some quick cash to regain shareholder trust rather than any real need;
it serves the interests of the C-levels rather than works towards
building a stronger company or making better games.

I don't really have anything against Tencent itself; its connections
with the Chinese government -common to any Chinese corporation- are,
of course, slightly troubling but I don't think they're anything an
end-user really has to worry about. More concerning is that Tencent
has a much bigger focus on mobile games and a desire to make games
that are more appealing to the tastes of the burgeoning Chinese
market. For all its faults, Ubisoft games have been tailored to fit
the tastes of Western audiences and -as a member of said audience- I'd
be saddened to see more of their resources spent on games I don't
enjoy as much. 

But while I don't really like the Guillemot leadership, I can't say
that any of the alternatives look like they'd do any better; rocky as
Ubisoft's fortunes are at the moment, they still manage to put out
games that are profitable. Whether its Tencent or a shareholder
revolt, I don't have confidence they'd manage the same.

It's sort of a catch-22; Ubisoft needs a shake-up, but the only ones I
have confidence in doing it are the very people who make the shake-up
necessary in the first place.

Still, the fact that Ubisoft is reaching out to other investors does
show that the company -or at least, the Guillemot family-- is at a
certain threshold of desperation. It'll be years before we see any
significant changes and in the meantime, I'm sure the company will do
what all companies do in such uncertain times: they'll play it safe
and just release the same sort of stuff that's worked before. But
changes are likely coming.

















* more details here!
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-14/assassin-s-creed-creator-ubisoft-is-said-to-seek-gaming-backers