After months of talks over a potential buyout, Ubisoft has announced the creation of a new subsidiary company backed by Chinese conglomerate Tencent’s investment, which will focus on its three biggest franchises: Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Far Cry.
With Tencent spending approximately US$1.25 billion to buy in and have a minority stake of around 25% in the company, the new subsidiary, which is valued at around US$4.3 billion, is set to “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”, according to a press release from the company.
The new subsidiary will encompass the teams responsible for the development of each of the three franchises, which are based in Montréal, Quebec, Barcelona, Sofia, Sherbrooke and Saguenay, and will also bring over its “back catalogue and any new games currently under development or to be developed”. To this end, Ubisoft will continue to focus on its other existing IPs, such as Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and The Division.
“Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history,” said co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot, “With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success. With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems.”
Ubisoft’s deal with Tencent and the formation of this subsidiary does raise more questions than answers, especially considering the importance of the three franchises affected. With such a large investment, it’s possible that Tencent would have a notable amount of influence on the respective titles moving forward, with the mentions of “free-to-play touchpoints” and “social features” alluding to the potential shift to the dreaded live-service format. At this point, these are pure speculations, but with Tencent’s current game portfolio of mostly free-to-play online titles riddled with microtransactions, the future of Ubisoft’s most beloved franchises remains uncertain.
On the flipside, Ubisoft’s move to simultaneously expand while narrowing its focus with the new subsidiary might be what the company needs right now, especially after its series of blunders with past games like Star Wars Outlaws and XDefiant. It seems that despite the recent success with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, major changes are still needed to shift the company in a new direction, so let’s hope that this turns out to be the right one.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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