The Ubisoft saga has taken another turn, entering the spooky season with news thatthe company might be going private.According to a new report, Chinese tech giant Tencent is aiming to run the show.
ABloombergreport has revealed thatTencent Holdings Ltd. is in talks with Guillemot Brothers Ltd., owners of Ubisoft,withnegotiations focused on stabilizing the company.
Ubisoft has had a turbulent yearfollowing lukewarm releases of big titles likeStar Wars Outlaws. The company was also the target of a shareholder coup attempt by AJ Investments, and its shares dipped 40% to a historic low.
Ubisoft Launches Internal Investigation Promising Drastic Changes
Someone turned up the heat over at Ubisoft, and it shows.
Tencent is not new to Ubisoft.In 2022, the Chinese company bought 49.9% of the shares of the Guillemot Brothers Ltd. holdingcompany. The last available financial report places the company’s holdings at 9.2% of net voting rights, compared to 20.5% held by the Guillemot brothers.
The official reaction from the Chinese side is not known, as Tencent staff have a week off from October 1 to celebrate the National Day of the People’s Republic of China.
The market in France has reacted positively, with a record gain of 33% on Friday, after the news broke. The Guillemot family has refused to comment thus far.
The French studio started the year with high hopes, banking on the highly-anticipated release ofStar Wars OutlawsandAssassin’s Creed Shadows, but things began unraveling over the summer.
The first sign of trouble came when arena shooterXDefiantbegan to flatline despite a successful launchin May.
Ubisoft’s XDefiant At Risk of Shutdown Due to Low Player Count
With less than 20,000 concurrent players, XDefiant might just be shelved soon by Ubisoft, marking the end of another FPS game.
In August,Star Wars: Outlawsreceived a double whammyoflukewarm reviewsand sales well below expectations.
Investors began to panic as soon as the early numbers were out, driving stock to a ten-year low and triggering a Slovakian hedge fund tocall for the Guillemot family to sellthe company.
Until today, the last major update in the Ubisoft saga wasthe last-minute postponement ofAssassin’s CreedShadows.
The game was set for a November release, with a playable at the Tokyo Game Show and press previews on the verge of going out.Ubisoft mysteriously pulled out of both initiativesbefore announcingthe game was pushed to 2025.
Ubisoft has not had an unequivocally good year since before the pandemic, and it seemsyears of crunch and uninspired releases have caught up with the French gaming giant.
