Tencent, Guillemot Family Reportedly Considering Ubisoft Buyout

Maybe Sony can convince them to buy Bungie too, maybe throw in firewalk.

Is it just me that thinks ubisofts output would be even worse under Tencent?

Sony should buy Ubisoft and let Team Asobi make a new Rayman game

So they’ve ground down the share price down to below 10$ through their own negligence and poor business practices so that they can now buy the shares cheaper through a forced purchase and gain back their ownership whilst ripping off all their investors.

Nothing will change if they achieve this with Tencent because Tencent will probably take a back seat thinking these clowns are going to change things by bringing out more Assassin Creed games with the promise of a Splinter Cell game in the future.

Maybe it's just time to change the "formula" for an Ubisoft game. I think people are getting fatigued by the cookie-cutter open-world game mechanics that pretty much all Ubisoft games have at this point (and a Star Wars license won't fix it).

Clearly Ubisoft has creative talent - just look at Mario + Rabbids - but it shouldn't take a partnership with Nintendo to bring that out!

Make something that is just fun to play. Scale back the development budgets a bit to and make fun original games. They don't need massive maps. They don't need tons of voice actors. They don't need to be bleeding edge.

@colonelkilgore I dunno…it’s hard to fall off the floor. But if anyone can manage such a feat, it WOULD be Ubisoft.

@colonelkilgore They're technically already under Tencent to some degree, but I take your meaning. I'm certainly wary about Tencent as an entity, but I think Ubisoft going private may be a really good outcome. If they do, they won't need every release to be a Massive (wink wink) success and just focus on making games that keep them in the black, rather than a constant stepping-stone to expansion.

@GamingFan4Lyf That change should have happened a decade ago. They’ve been sacking their best talent on higher wages and getting in younger staff who can find themselves being quickly promoted to manager roles over experience

Private is good. No shareholders breathing down their neck demanding constant growth.

I guess it's a good thing they have nothing left I'd want to support, lol.

@GamingFan4Lyf Davide Soliani already left Ubisoft. Pretty much the only worthwhile team left is the one that made the recent Prince of Persia.

Well if you spend millions making games like Avatar and SW outlaws and some how don’t make them top AAA games then what do you expect.

You reap what you sow, it’s as simple as that.

Basically terrible manufacturing process leading to poor games.

@Ralizah He couldn't have possibly been the only creative person, there, right?! Right?!!

I quite like Ubisoft open world games, guess im in the minority😃

Ubisoft could shut down tomorrow and I wouldn't care less.

@Jrs1 nope, not just you. Avatar was the only one I really didn’t like. I’m playing and enjoying SW:O now.

@Jrs1 you aren't the only one mate, I'm quite fond of their single player open world games. I have Star Wars but not played it yet, really enjoyed Avatar too.

If Ubisoft dies, the only thing i want is for a decent studio to buy the Rayman IP

@Jrs1 they're not great. But hate for the studio leaves the games to be judged more harshly than most others.

I hope they don't buy. Or at least wait until AC shadows is out. Release it on steam, and I'll buy it.

The funny thing is if that occurs and it's just some major conglomerate of salivating private investors at the helm, it will just be even worse formulaic and/or predatory games and a massive layoffs that result.

Ubisoft needs to be cut in half atleast they have way too many people.

Games have continued getting worse and worse and this year in particular just undesirable to play. They are a sinking ship

Can’t wait for xbox podcast like defining Duke tho to say xbox should buy them lol.

@Americansamurai1 Can we also add Herman Hulst to that package?!

If Tencent is involved, that would just make things worse. And it would be keeping the current problems, not fixing them.

Tencent? Hey even more reasons not to buy from Ubisoft as if I needed any 😅

@IslandLogic man would be awesome to get him out of there and Shu back in

@Jrs1 I'm in the same boat - I like Ubisoft games in general. I'm subscribed to Ubisoft+ at the moment and enjoying playing through a few of their games. They aren't perfect obviously but there is absolutely an element of 'bandwagon jumping' in everyone constantly slagging them off.

@somnambulance
You’re still buying their games? Save the money

I must be the rare one who actually likes their games, especially the Far Cry and Watch Dogs games, but also really enjoyed Immortals Fenyx Rising and both Mario Rabbids games.

This has been the plan all along get share prices down to a low amount and buy it at a low price

@GamingFan4Lyf agree, other examples of small but great games would be valiant hearts, child of light and grow up. The last smaller scale prince of Persia was also a move in the right direction.

It's sad news. The bigger the corporate buyouts the greater loss of creative freedom and input employed developers have to add a more grounded, individual style to the game as they become cogs in a machine steered by profit driven execs.
It seems to me that, Ubisoft, like Naughty Dog before them trod a fine path between the two but were misstepped by internal and external forces with other agendas

@Jrs1 yeah, the minority of 10-15 million that buy every AC and Far Cry 😅 it's a total nonsense that Ubisoft isn't popular, really. They have just made some weird decisions lately, since Skull & Bones, and their own IP are much stronger than their massive licensed ones, it has turned out.

Let the Anno team start their own studio, then the rest can turn into a chinese gacha gaas factory for all I care.

If this happens it will be interesting to see how this would affect the Activision cloud gaming rights that Xbox recently sold to Ubisoft. I can't see Microsoft wanting Tencent to have any part of their franchises.

@GamingFan4Lyf they don't need DEI that nobody wants too.

I just want a new Rayman platformer, I can't be the only one.

Let Embracer Group buy them 😂

Ubisoft desperately needs new leadership, a new direction, and a new vision. Sony should be looking to aquire it, if anyone. Not let it become yet another Chinese buyout, and especially not tencent.

@RBMango exactly i mean what would missed if they shut down? They've either ran their franchises into the ground like far cry and assassins creed or they've completely ignored them like rayman.

Tencent should stay far away from this mess, let Yves sort his mess out himself.

Just don't understand how you can own Rayman, splinter cell, ghost recon, rainbow six and numerous other popular franchises and either ignore them completely or ruin them, just poor leadership and lack of understanding of what gamers want.

I certainly don't want assassins creed every year or every other year, definitely don't want rainbow six in it's current clown form, bring back vegas!

Damn, poor ol’ Ubi just can’t catch a break anymore huh? Seems like there’s an article on them everyday here. I personally don’t own any of their games, but I HAVE enjoyed ones I tried before. If they do get bought out, then I wonder how it’ll affect AC: Shadows. I’m not getting it myself, but am curious about how that release goes.

@Deityjester Agreed. Some franchises are very much okay for yearly releases; Mario, Atelier, but some just don’t need it like Assassin’s Creed or Pokémon. I feel it just cheapens brands. And in Ubisoft’s case, it seems to be biting them in the ass hard.

The Fall of Ubisoft and the rise of Tencent needs to be studied.

This is like watching a toilet flush after a heavy garlic'd dinner.

I actually would love to see Ubisoft go private, but only if the Guillemot brothers and NOT Tencent have majority control.

People don't like Guillemot, but the man is a developer from back in the day, and Ubisoft's games were very good until they went public. Trying to please investors and fend off hostile takeovers is when they got bad and overextended. Being public is what broke them, and being private might make them focus on quality games again. But if Tencent has control.....nope.

Appoint Hermen Hulst as the new CEO of Ubisoft. I mean it would hurt to see him leave Playstation but Ubisoft needs his business genius more right now. It's just the right thing to do.

We'll just have to find some way to go on without him.

Wait until some corpo become cheap with esg stuff, then buy it cheap and make it private with no esg, I’m beginning to think that’s tencent motives 🧐

Interesting... That could actually be the reason for the seemingly inexplicable delay of AC Shadows.

Ubisoft is understandably very nervous about this game's launch, and another flop should send the stock prices into a death spiral.

Can't say I'm happy about the Chinese tentacles reaching further into the gaming industry, but Ubisoft really had it coming.

I’m not sure to understand. My understanding is that Ubisoft was already owned by the guillemot family and Tencent, as major stakeholders. Why buying it?

@somnambulance I am still fairly positive of ubisoft too. They have put out many games that I've enjoyed over the years. Even that star wars game, I've watched a couple reviews it looks pretty decent, I've only held off because I've never been that into star wars.
They did go a bit dlc crazy in the PS4 era, pushing it on the title screens, but they seem to have toned that down severely. I'm not sure if they deserve as much online hate as they get nowadays.

Ubisoft would fit better with EA or Activision. Make a giant evil conglomerate. The could even acquire Ubisoft via micro transactions and DLCs.

If they go private. They need get rid of their DEI modernist culture within and only bring mates in based on merit. As it’s clear that most talented blokes have left due to them having to outsource development for such a large company. In fact many gaming studios need to do this in the realm. Go back to just making games desirable to their respective fans and not trying to interweave modernist ideals of the hour into established IPs. New IPs it’s okay but they always fail which shows there is no organic demand. Anyways I truly don’t feel sorry for Ubisoft as they mismanaged and insulted their paying customers.

Recently I saw this video on YT comparing the concord development and Killzone 2 development. The old culture of G games was cool with cool mates and was how the gaming industry used to be from the beginning. Contrast this to the concord team whose ethos is present day and so many other studios embody the current days ethos in the realm. So Ubisoft won’t magically be better going private.

If it gets absorbed by Tencent I’m out.
I won’t play any game under their prime ownership.

@somnambulance 7/10 according to the biased games media and you, Mirage just valhalla dlc repackaged as a full game, star wars outlaws is an insult to star wars and skull and bones is proof ubisoft do not care or listen to their fans, people wanted ac black flag sea of thieves not what skull and bones is.

You wanna talk about hate go look at Bethesda and how many grifters are after them at the moment because starfield didn't live up to expectations anyone who's played a Bethesda rpg knows the game could never live up to, this is not to say i don't agree with criticism of that game because i do.

bye rayman (sniff) byeeeee.

never see you ever again.

I played Prince of Persia the Lost Crown and the Crew Motorfest, these are the only 2 games I loved from Ubisoft this gen.

Far Cry is the only other series I love from them, but with Far Cry 7 rumored to have a time limit, I think I am out. If it doesn't, I will get it.

They need to stop Assassin Creed completely. That series has too many games, the last really good one was Black Flag. After Valhalla, I am completely burned out.

Star Wars Outlaws seems to be trash and that's coming from Star Wars fans. I literally couldn't care less for it, as I hate Star Wars and I never understood why anyone would love this garbage.

It's the same for Avatar Frontier of Pandora. Far Cry reskin based on a trash sci-fi series I have no idea why anyone likes.

I guess there is Rayman ... oh wait, they will obviously never make one of them ever again, that series is buried for good.

Those Tom Clancy games are dividing. Their games are either extremely good or the worst garbage you've ever seen.

Any games I haven't mentionned above is just trash that should never have existed. If anyone has a time machine, please erase them.

@UltimateOtaku91 No, you are far from the only one that likes Ubisoft games. It's just the cool thing to hate on them even though they have made good games. Sure, the open world Assassin's Creed games got bloated, but they are still good games, especially Origins and Odyssey.

A lot of the people that like to crap on Ubisoft probably don't even play their games. Yes, they could afford to branch out from their formula, but they have made several good games over the last 5 years or so.

@GigaGaia No, they don't need to stop with Assassin's Creed. That is still a series plenty of people love and would end up being a huge loss for fans. They also don't make Assassin's Creed games as frequently as they used to. Valhalla did end up bloated (I still liked it), but Origins and Odyssey were both good.

Star Wars Outlaws is not trash. It's a solid enough game that should've been delayed in order to optimize it better and such, but it is definitely not trash. There are several people, including myself, that have enjoyed it.

Beyond Good & Evil's 20th Anniversary edition is quite good from what I hear. Immortals Fenyx Rising was a solid Zelda clone, so that was good as well.

@PALversusNTSC rayman origins/legends are incredible games, but it's been over 10 years since they got released... the franchise had been dead for a while anyways with no signs of a comeback. michel ancel (creator of rayman) has since left the company and that didn't help either

@Malaise Yeah I think people nowadays the new youth does look at injustice more then the older generations. It's not that strange because they are left holding the bag.

The environment is brought to its knees they have to solve it, war they get to solve the refugees problem, abuse in the workplace they have a heart while some people play it off like if i don't hear it it's not real and my problem.

The company self create the problems and it's baffling you somehow turn it around on the community. The current owners somehow make these terrible decisions and problems happen and actively choose to ignore or sweep them under the rug.

@KilloWertz The best thing about Ubisoft is their old games. They have classics and somehow ignore them they even screw up remasters it's somehow really sad.

Immortals Fenyx Rising is a game which they choose to cancel the follow up. And if a game like Starwars fails to turn the ship around because you are this clueless and release such a bad product that it needs a roadmap for fixes well you are done.

@Flaming_Kaiser Sure, old Ubisoft is the best Ubisoft. They still have released some good games though. It's a popular thing to crap on them. Even while some of it is deserved, they have released good games.

And? That doesn't change the fact that Immortals Fenyx Rising was a solid game. I wasn't talking about sales. Just the fact that they have actually made some quality games over the last 5 years or so.

Star Wars Outlaws is actually a solid enough game. Was it released too soon? Sure, which is why it needs patches and some technical optimization. Again, that doesn't change the fact that it's actually a solid enough game regardless. I guess somehow those of us that have actually really enjoyed the game are somehow wrong though as it goes against people's narratives that everything Ubisoft makes is trash.

@KilloWertz Lets start making games were the released version is in a quality state not barely functional or start pricing to the released standard. If you sell a early access game price it accordingly.

I don't give a toss with the excuse that games are getting bigger and more difficult to develop maybe start with making games fun and finished again. If its to difficult tone it back and make them more manageable. Makes less content at a higher standard if needed.

The quality of gaming dropped of a cliff after the PS3. How about releasing a game were the game is in a quality state at day one. If it's to difficult start polishing the games or release them later.

To expensive make them extremely expensive and difficult to develop for and start making them fun and functional. You only have one first impression and that makes or breaks your game.

Stop hammering in content for the sake of more content instead of being quality solid and fun content. Ubisoft is king at releasing games full of filler to sell the good stuff as DLC. AC is a fantastic example of that a lot of liveservice is example of that.

@Flaming_Kaiser Now that we veered off, I can agree with you.

You are not wrong that a lot of the problems really started after the PS3, which was probably the last of the glory days so to speak. Obviously the PS4 had a lot of amazing games, but the PS3 was the last gen where the disc would have a fully playable game on it at least 9 times out of 10.

Sure, the open world RPG Assassin's Creed trilogy of games ended up getting quite bloated by the end with Valhalla. I still enjoyed it, but Odyssey will always remain my favorite and Origins is probably the perfect length for a lot of people. Hopefully Shadows scales things back a bit when it comes out next year.

Let's hope they look through their back catalogue and come across dusty plans for a sequel to Rayman and Fenyx Rising...

@KilloWertz I don't mind a big scale but don't do it to be big but to make it a better game. With Syndicate I loved Evie but I have to honest here the game would have been fantastic if they cut out the filler and just add the DLC to the game it would have made the game so much better and way more engaging and fun.

And I understand games are getting bigger but I don't see them getting better a lot of the time besides some GTA/RDR/Dark Souls series and the first party titles from Sony for me personally. I really dislike that Sony only allows the same start of the digital on the disk or that they have to pay extra to quality check it again.