Game publisherUbisoftis creating a new subsidiary company with a large investment from Tencent to focus on three massive franchises. Fresh off the release ofAssassin’s Creed Shadows, which is purportedlythe second-biggest launch in the franchise’s history, the company is obtaining external investment to potentially combat its prior issues before the launch ofShadows, such as layoffs, underperforming games, and a record-low stock share price, and this new subsidiary’s focus is quite narrow.
Ubisoft(viaVGC) saysAssassin’s Creed,Far Cry, andTom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, three of the biggest IPs owned by the company, are going to be the focus points of this new subsidiary.Tencent spent approximately $1.25 billion to buy in and have a minority stake of around 25%in the company. Ubisoft says the new subsidiary, backed by Tencent’s investment, “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.“This new subsidiary is reportedly worth $4.3 billion USD (viaIGN).
What This Deal Means For Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, And Rainbow Six
This Deal With Tencent Brings A Lot of Questions
How exactly this new deal and subsidiary with Tencent will affect these three massive franchises isn’t clear right now, and it brings in more questions than answers. With this size of investment,it seems likely Tencent will have a noticeable amount of influence on the future of these three franchises. Ubisoft said it will “focus” on the development of itsGhost ReconandThe Divisionfranchises and grow its top-performing games.
This new subsidiary includes the teams developing theRainbow Six,Assassin’s Creed, andFar Cryfranchises based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia, as well as Ubisoft’s back-catalog and any new games currently under development or to be developed. So, it would seem that any current projects in development and the developers on those projects are still moving forward, butit remains to be seen if the new deal will bring additional layoffs or other major impacts to Ubisoft.
Ubisoft Is Trying To Transform After A Period Of Turmoil
Recent Success May Open The Path To Preventing Regression
Ubisoft may have had very recent success withAssassin’s Creed Shadows, but the path to get there was rocky.Star Wars Outlawsunderperformed last year, which partially led to astudio closure and hundreds of layoffs in Ubisoft. The company previously stated that thedelays and game cancelations were due to the company making too many games at once.
Other franchises will still continue, however, with Ubisoft sayingit will continue working on other franchises besides the three major names under the subsidiary.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows' Reported Sales Success Is Not Enough To Save Ubisoft
While Assassin’s Creed Shadows is proving to be a necessary win for Ubisoft, it may not be enough to save the company from its bevy of issues.
Trying to expand and simultaneously narrow its focus with an additional subsidiary after several blunders may be what Ubisoft needs. How exactly the new subsidiary will impact the future ofAssassin’s Creed,Far Cry, andRainbow Sixremains to be seen, but hopefully, this move will putUbisoftin a positive direction.
