Ubisoft Spins Off Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six into New Subsidiary with Tencent 1

In a complicated corporate move, Ubisoft has announced it’s creating a new subsidiary to house its most important intellectual properties: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six.

The new company, valued at around €4 billion, will receive a €1.16 billion injection of cash from Chinese giant Tencent, who will gain a 25% stake in the organisation in return.

In a statement, the embattled French firm was effusive about the move, claiming it will “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”.

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But what this means for the remaining parts of Ubisoft – and, perhaps more importantly, its thousands of employees – remains unclear.

Major franchises like The Crew, Just Dance, and Splinter Cell are not moving to the subsidiary, and it’s hard to shake a sense of cynicism about their futures. The company does explicitly mention it’ll continue to work on The Division and Ghost Recon.

But the teams behind Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, including those in Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia, will move to the new subsidiary. The rest will remain where they are.

“Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history,” boss Yves Guillemot said. “As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious.

“We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies.

“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 crystalising 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.”

It’s too early to say where this will all go, but it feels like the writing’s on the wall for the rest of Ubisoft’s properties to us.

For those who haven’t been following this story, the French firm has been struck by several poor performers and drastic stock price drops recently, forcing it to make these seismic changes to its corporate structure.

While the publisher’s certainly sounding bullish in its statement, this move seems designed to shore up its strongest assets, and we’ll simply need to wait and see what that means for the rest of the company and its games.

[source staticctf.ubisoft.com]