Friday, December 6th 2024
Rumor: Ubisoft Considers Complicated Tencent Buyout After Strenuous 2024
It's no secret that Ubisoft hasn't had the best year, with the gaming giant having had to shut down multiple live-service and single-player games this year as a result of disappointing player counts and sales figures. Now, according to a series of rumors, Ubisoft is in talks with Chinese conglomerate Tencent with the intention of a buy-out. Curiously, though, Yves Guillemot, who currently sits as CEO of Ubisoft, wants to sell at least some of the Guillemot family's shares to Tencent, effectively giving Tencent a controlling stake in Ubisoft, but the Guillemot family wants to do so without losing control of the company it helped found.
According to Reuters, inside sources claim that the Guillemot family, who are the founding shareholders and currently have a controlling stake in Ubisoft, would like to maintain a controlling position in the company after whatever potential buyout deal is being discussed. Apparently, the Guillemot Family's desire for continued control has thus far been a sticking point for Tencent, who has as yet opted not increase its stake in the French game developer and publisher, instead holding out for a more favorable deal. Tencent already has around a 10% stake in Ubisoft, but the inside sources claim that Tencent wants greater control over the company before agreeing to a buyout of Guillemot shares.
The news of a potential buyout deal comes the same week Ubisoft decided to shut down its fledgling F3P FPS, XDefiant, and lay off over 250 staff members from the team that developed the game. That's not the first time Ubisoft has faced layoffs or commercial hardships this year, earlier shutting down Prince of Persia The Lost Crown due to its commercial "failure."
Tencent is a massive Chinese game developer and conglomerate that has made a big push into the Western gaming scene in recent years, whether by buying out game studios entirely, as was the case with Warframe developer, Digital Extremes, and Riot Games, or with more subtle moves, like its almost 10% stake in Ubisoft and 35% ownership of Epic Games.
Sources:
Reuters, UGN
According to Reuters, inside sources claim that the Guillemot family, who are the founding shareholders and currently have a controlling stake in Ubisoft, would like to maintain a controlling position in the company after whatever potential buyout deal is being discussed. Apparently, the Guillemot Family's desire for continued control has thus far been a sticking point for Tencent, who has as yet opted not increase its stake in the French game developer and publisher, instead holding out for a more favorable deal. Tencent already has around a 10% stake in Ubisoft, but the inside sources claim that Tencent wants greater control over the company before agreeing to a buyout of Guillemot shares.
Tencent is a massive Chinese game developer and conglomerate that has made a big push into the Western gaming scene in recent years, whether by buying out game studios entirely, as was the case with Warframe developer, Digital Extremes, and Riot Games, or with more subtle moves, like its almost 10% stake in Ubisoft and 35% ownership of Epic Games.
22 Comments on Rumor: Ubisoft Considers Complicated Tencent Buyout After Strenuous 2024
shame they had to ruin game Ip for it.
Unless you just worded that poorly.
If such big studio as Ubisoft is willing to be bought in any part by Tencent, that means Ubisoft is f*ucked and they desperately need money.
Ubisoft brought many good games in past, Anno 1404 is a masterpiece, few AC titles too, I even enjoyed GR Wildlands a lot. Now Ubisoft should take a deep breath and make another games like these, even reskin would do just fine to keep things going. Wildlands, for instance, did not need successor (Breakpoint). All it needed was additional content, another story.
Ubisoft, look at Fallout 76 or Generation Zero. F76 was bugfest from start, but after 2-3 years they shaped a really good game out of it. And they keep adding content, balancing things. Game is like 7 years old now and they still work on it. Also, devs listen to gamers. Same applies to Generation Zero. Now Ubisoft, imagine what could be done with Wildlands in 5-6 years of proper support.
But nah, you want money and want it fast, by selling gamers shitty titles like Far Cry 6. Desperate enough to join up with evil forces.
Ubisoft has been one of the industry leaders in the Western markets for gaming that pushes arcane combinations of MTX, season pass, and DLC content in paid for games alongside (invasive and sometimes double) DRM. They don't need tencent for vicious schemes, they've shown to be perfectly capable of it without them. Its part of the reason their franchises are in the gutter because for all that extra money, they've been unable to make anything new, or innovate, for the last decade or so.
'Even a reskin would be fine' are you sure? I think its the reskin/rehash method that brought them to this point. You can't keep repeating the same shit hoping it sticks.
On the other hand, tencent can get bent as well.
Haven't played an Ubisoft game in years, I can't even remember what was the last one, maybe Far Cry 5 ? Couldn't even finish it, it was monstrously mediocre and boring.
Apparently, they want to sell off to Tencent, but in a way that they will still retain some control over a company. I suppose in a 51/49 split. I am not sure why they think Tencent themselves would entertain this.
I'd definitely buy reskin of Anno 1404, for example. Same game mechanics with better graphics, especially textures. But that's my opinion.
Or I'd go for graphical remaster or C&C Generals Zero Hour, no change in game mechanics required, maybe make it work co-op through P2P.
GR Wildlands with another campaign would be good. It is still very good looking game with nice weather mechanics and lightning.
On Extreme difficulty it's really challenging, mainly thanks to a fact that AI is cheating.
Division was another series that I had fun with. Division 2 was good, too. Endgame was boring but devs were adding new content for free (except DLC).
I like(d) Ubisoft because of their support for co-op. You could play entire campaign of D2 or FC5 with friends. Just like with Gearbox's Borderlands.
Now imagine games as Witcher 3, Cyberpunk, Deus Ex or Hitman being co-op, that would be something.
I may be dumb but I enjoyed Far Cry 5 despite it being an arcade. Of course, without co-op support it would be boring as hell.
Graphics were good, especially forest and river sceneries were looking great for that time, even better with resolution scaling ramped up to 2.00x.
Script was good except for Faith's part. Game was not worth it at full price, I bough it on sale at 75% off.
But, I'm sure the problem is the story of ever increasing development costs of what they make and that gaming has been changing (their player base isn't growing according to their clever plans). Which is the game industry forever, with the names changing.
"Beyond Good and Evil 2."
Let that little bit of bile and hate stew for a moment. Let the Duke Nukem levels of vaporware provide that little edge of anger. Now, I'm assuming that everyone still reading views this as the most appropriate result. As in, after all this time it's great that what stands between a cancerous mega conglomeration buying out a publisher guilty of toxic stupidity like clockwork is that the management of both halves cannot come to an agreement on who will preside over the corpse of great IP skittering along a bob-sled level track with express stops in Oblivion. Not the Bethesda Oblivion...though, not far off...the "we are being parted out to the Embracer Group" levels of Oblivion and Hell.