Ubisoft and Tencent have Partnered Up

[Grimno]

So remember all those people claiming Tencent was going to BUY Ubisoft?

Turns out, that's not happening~

Ubisoft is forming a new subsidiary company in partnership with Tencent.
The subsidiary is valued at ~$4.3B and includes IPs like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six.

Tencent is investing a 25% stake in the company.

So Ubisoft and Tencent have partnered up.

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/tencent-acquires-25-stake-in-ubisofts-new-gaming-subsidiary-93CH-3952688

This will also help shield those IPs in case anything does happen.
Tencent will be getting royalties for sales, but they're a financial backer/partner.


Edit: Funny enough, this very thing got reported on happening by Eurogamer almost 2 weeks ago

https://www.eurogamer.net/ubisoft-reportedly-considering-fresh-business-to-own-assassins-creed-and-other-big-franchises-co-owned-by-others-like-tencent

[MockingOwl]

Messaggio originale di Grimno:

Messaggio originale di Crimson Dawn:

Wow i have never seen cope this hard. Dude thought that by posting the news first before the chuds and trying to spin them as a win would work. Thank god it's over for woke Ubisoft. Now they will make games for us the chuds and you will be left in the dust. And fyi every woke activist is getting layed off. Expect 5-10 thousand layoffs.

Tencent owns 42% of Don't Nod which made Life is Strange and just released Bloom and Rage
Tencent also owns 10% of Ubisoft and has since 2018
Meaning if Shadows is woke, Tencent had a hand in it

Y'all are just making up nonsense now.
Games are gonna keep being woke.
Except now there will be more MTX.

Hate to break it. Even Grummz admits they got a sweet deal.
The chuds have fallen.
Dozens must cope.

Edit: Also I'm still waiting for Bioware Edmonton to shut down
I was told they were going to shut down. The whole studio.
Why it no shut down?

"Games are gonna keep being woke" u are out of ur mind sir

[Bo]

Another interesting question would be: does that deal lead to a complete change of this game with the next big patch?

[Armor Doge]

Messaggio originale di Grimno:

So remember all those people claiming Tencent was going to BUY Ubisoft?

Turns out, that's not happening~

Ubisoft is forming a new subsidiary company in partnership with Tencent.
The subsidiary is valued at ~$4.3B and includes IPs like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six.

Tencent is investing a 25% stake in the company.

So Ubisoft and Tencent have partnered up.

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/tencent-acquires-25-stake-in-ubisofts-new-gaming-subsidiary-93CH-3952688

This will also help shield those IPs in case anything does happen.
Tencent will be getting royalties for sales, but they're a financial backer/partner.


Edit: Funny enough, this very thing got reported on happening by Eurogamer almost 2 weeks ago

https://www.eurogamer.net/ubisoft-reportedly-considering-fresh-business-to-own-assassins-creed-and-other-big-franchises-co-owned-by-others-like-tencent

That’s called “being bailed out.”
How do you do it?
How?
The mental gymnastics are next level in this forum.

[Poe 愛]

Messaggio originale di Bo:

Another interesting question would be: does that deal lead to a complete change of this game with the next big patch?

why would they do it when the game is selling that would be a waste of ressources

[VhagarTheLastOne]

Messaggio originale di Bo:

Another interesting question would be: does that deal lead to a complete change of this game with the next big patch?

No. Microsoft didnt do anything to Bethesda or Blizzard games. They didnt even add their own logo, which was odd imho.

So much drama for nothing. Game Industry keeps going like it has been.

[Cruna]

Messaggio originale di ♪RL:

Messaggio originale di AdahnGorion:

This is what we call a classic reconstruction.
Tencent is already the third largest shareholder in Ubisoft with almost 10% of the stocks (The Guillemot Family have 14%...)

Tencent or another investor company will most likely end up being a majority shareholder in the near future.
This recontruction however, is a sign that staff reductions, division closings are incoming and most likely also the selling of IPs outside this new construction.

It makes sense. Ubisoft will focus on the 3 big IP´s they have and get rid of everything else. Ie.
Could Anno series go to Paradox? most likely (Tencent also own a good share in that, they do in many large companies)
Could Prince of Persia go to Microsoft? most likely, same with Rayman
What about HoMM, well.. maybe Paradox as well in the future? (Ubisoft is releasing a new HoMM soon, so it wont be until after that and depending on how it performs)


Other IPs (not all, just listing some)
Watch Dogs
Call of Juarez
The Settlers
Just Dance

Makes me a bit worried, as I do like the Rayman games a lot. On the same token if Rayman does get sold off Rayman Legends might finally be free from that god awful launcher, I legit have not been able to play my copy because of it. Legit one of the few games I care about from Ubi, so maybe this is a good thing. We'll see I suppose, for the time being I'll just be watching.

Honestly it doesn't matter with Rayman. Most often it has gragantuan sales on every platform. Like 3$ literally spare change. So I simply grabbed it on Steam, and on PS5 also. It's a great game and those minuscule prices makes it worth buying it again on your chosen platform.

I wish Origins would be available on Playstation too.
It's awesome on it's own (even if many updated levels are available in legends from Origins) I even like Origins more because it feels more of a pure platformer, while Legends is a bit gimmicky, and levels are short.

Just get both on sale, they are SUPER cheap, you can ditch the stupid UBI launcher

PS. as a bonus on Playstation the online component of Legends is still alive unlike on UBI or steam.

Oh and Origins is available on GOG also (at this moment for 2.99$ lol) and hurray for DRM free game

[Tiasmoon]

Messaggio originale di Grimno:

Tencent sees money
Folks are claiming Shadows is flopping when all data is practically yelling it isn't.

The numbers suggest the opposite. Particular sales numbers coming out of Japan and concurrent players on here on Steam.

3m players would suggest that there's 10~30x the players outside of steam.
That is extremely unlikely to be the case, especially since we know from Japanese console sales numbers that the game only sold 17k copies in its first week.

It seems that some people who desperately want the game (or company, or its stock) to be a success are trying very hard to ignore most of the numbers and only use unclear metrics like ''players'' (ones that are also much easier to fake) that dont match the rest of the numbers.

[Ryu]

Messaggio originale di Tiasmoon:

The numbers suggest the opposite. Particular sales numbers coming out of Japan and concurrent players on here on Steam.

3m players would suggest that there's 10~30x the players outside of steam.
That is extremely unlikely to be the case, especially since we know from Japanese console sales numbers that the game only sold 17k copies in its first week.

It seems that some people who desperately want the game (or company, or its stock) to be a success are trying very hard to ignore most of the numbers and only use unclear metrics like ''players'' (ones that are also much easier to fake) that dont match the rest of the numbers.

It was the 5th best selling game in Japan for the week, in the UK they also said it had the biggest physical launch of the year so far. Ubisoft can't fake their numbers, they'd literally get into legal trouble by doing such a thing because that would be deceiving investors.

[Vixziค็็็็็n]

lol what a spin piece.

[Tiasmoon]

Messaggio originale di Ryu:

Messaggio originale di Tiasmoon:

The numbers suggest the opposite. Particular sales numbers coming out of Japan and concurrent players on here on Steam.

3m players would suggest that there's 10~30x the players outside of steam.
That is extremely unlikely to be the case, especially since we know from Japanese console sales numbers that the game only sold 17k copies in its first week.

It seems that some people who desperately want the game (or company, or its stock) to be a success are trying very hard to ignore most of the numbers and only use unclear metrics like ''players'' (ones that are also much easier to fake) that dont match the rest of the numbers.

It was the 5th best selling game in Japan for the week, in the UK they also said it had the biggest physical launch of the year so far. Ubisoft can't fake their numbers, they'd literally get into legal trouble by doing such a thing because that would be deceiving investors.

https://www.famitsu.com/article/202503/35700

Being ''5th'' best doesnt mean anything in itself. The sales were only 17k, which is very low for a huge budget title.

Oops wrong one, linked the MH Wilds article. I thought that 600k number was a bit heh. (that's what I get for just copying tabs) Well I'll leave it up so you can see it put AC Shadows to shame.

Here's the sales for AC Shadows launch week:

https://www.famitsu.com/article/202503/37909

#1 Xenoblade Chronicles - 74k copies sold
#2 Atelier Yumia - 63k copies sold (combined sales for #2, #3 and #7)
#5 AC Shadows -17k copies sold

[Megachonkster]

Messaggio originale di Grimno:

Messaggio originale di Rob The Frog:

No. Tencent bought Ubisoft like it does with other failing game development companies.

Tencent owns 13% of FromSoftware

And now they also own a huge chunk of Ubisofts major IPs. They can demand a LOT of things now, and Ubisoft will HAVE TO oblige.

Its really hard to see this as the positive thing tbf.

And im willing to bet that Mr Guillemot over there is preparing to bail and has his golden parachute on stand by.

Watch him "graciously retiring" from position in a 6 months or so.

[CastielArch]

Messaggio originale di WolfEisberg:

Messaggio originale di CastielArch:

Already happening. First page a guy is saying we don't understand grown up things and Tencent carving themselves 25% of Ubisoft is a wonderful partnership and a good thing showing how strong Ubisoft is going.

You can't argue with delusional people that will look at a duck and tell you it's a cat...

Owning 25% of a subsiderary does not equal to owning 25% of all of Ubisoft.

Given the fact they put their biggest franchises in this new subsidiary and that we mostly just care about the gaming aspect of Ubisoft, it is basically like owning 25% of Ubisoft.

[AdahnGorion]

Messaggio originale di WolfEisberg:

Messaggio originale di CastielArch:

Already happening. First page a guy is saying we don't understand grown up things and Tencent carving themselves 25% of Ubisoft is a wonderful partnership and a good thing showing how strong Ubisoft is going.

You can't argue with delusional people that will look at a duck and tell you it's a cat...

Owning 25% of a subsiderary does not equal to owning 25% of all of Ubisoft.

The new subsidiary is a way to take away the 3 big IP´s (that they wanna focus on in the future) and then cut them off (could be as a Tencent subsidiary or a larger joint venture, but not with the Guillemot family, but rather other investors as the largets influence)

When companies do this reconstructions of a company, it is often to evade debt.
Ubisoft have a massive debt problem and it wont be resolved until they massively reduce staff, sell assets (IP´s, divisions, etc) With this new construction, there is nothing preventing Tencent ie. to gain full control and not take on the debt of the mother company (Ubisoft)

Its clever.. should not be legal, but is.. we see it all the time with corporations.
The Guillemot family current owns 14% of Ubisoft, Tencent is 9ish procent and while a large part of stocks are from within the company (insiders) then the vast majority of control above 50% is from outside influence.

With the new structure, Tencent will gain more power and most likely a "can´t say, as I would break rules about the stock market" investor outside the Guillemot family will make up majority along with Tencent.

This leaves room for a new fresh start under Tencent (or as a new company) without taking on the massive debt of Ubisoft.
Ubisoft almost have 3 billion in debt.

Overall there have been lots of money earned from insiders with this current deal and there sure was a surge after it was announced (it dropped lower afterwards, when they learned more details about the deal, as it was not to save Ubisoft, but rather to change control)

Here is another good read.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/ubisoft-seen-up-13-15-after-it-sets-up-tencent-backed-subsidiary-2025-03-28/


Ubisofts issue is not singular games btw.
AC:S is not doing well financially, its not doing immensly poor either.. It might even reach "okish" status.. but as I showcased earlier, then Ubisoft is a huge corporation that use massive budgets on every large AAA title (+200m on most and even up towards 500m on some)

When you keep not making profits and you can´t buy off your debt (due to interest) then you are in trouble.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3448952077

AC:S is a decent game for what it wants to be. I don´t personally think its worth playing because the character interactions and story is not on par with what I ecpect from a production this budget. But I fully understand why some might like the combat ie. I also dislike the MTX and live-service in a SP game.. that is a huge issue for many.