While the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows has gone swimmingly for Ubisoft, with millions of sales and generally positive sentiments about its latest open-world RPG, it’s felt like a company in deep trouble recently. Prior to Shadows, it experienced a string of flops like XDefiant and Skull and Bones, its stock price tanked, and it conducted a critical review into how its business was being run and how it can change its fortunes. Now, Ubisoft has revealed that it’s creating a new subsidiary company that’ll house three of its biggest series, and even though the French company will remain in control, it’ll be getting a huge injection of over a billion dollars from Chinese mega corporation Tencent.
Rumors that Ubisoft may separate or even sell off some of its most high-value IP have swirled for a few weeks, but now we know exactly what its plans are. While this new subsidiary doesn’t yet have a name, it will be the new home for all the studios working on the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six franchises. All previously released games in these series, which will of course include new blockbusters like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, ongoing live service games like Rainbow Six Siege, and classic old games too, will move under the control of this subsidiary, along with any projects that are currently in development and all future AC, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six releases. Ubisoft has specified that other Tom Clancy series, like Ghost Recon and The Division, are not moving to this new company.
“This new subsidiary will focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform,” an Ubisoft press release reads. “Backed by greater investment and boosted creative capacities, it will drive further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features.”
Ubisoft’s co-founder and CEO, Yves Guillemot, describes this as “a new chapter” for the company, and that this decision creates “the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term
growth and success.”
As mentioned, this subsidiary will be receiving a huge injection of cash from Tencent. Ubisoft says the investment totals €1.16 billion, which equates to $1.25 billion / £966 million in current exchange rates. As a result, Tencent will have a minority stake in the subsidiary, which has been valued at around 4 billion euros, but Ubisoft still retains ownership and control over it.
It’s currently unclear whether the teams shifting over to this new subsidiary will undergo any restructuring – I’d certainly hope not if it’s got a billion dollars on the way from Tencent. This is a huge move from Ubisoft, and it’ll be extremely interesting to see how these three core franchises evolve as a result.
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