Big Trouble For Little Ubisoft

Good news, Ubisoft is actually dying.

Ubisoft and Tencent considering buyout, taking the company private - report

Tencent and Assassin's Creed maker Ubisoft are considering a buyout.

That's according to a new report from Bloomberg, which noted the video game developer had lost more than half its market value over the year.

"The Chinese tech company and Guillemot Brothers Ltd have been speaking with advisers to help explore ways to stabilise Ubisoft and bolster its value," Bloomberg's report reads.

Some online cope. nomnomnonmnom

This saddens me because a lot of these IP's might get lost in some legal quagmire, and they're really quite excellent.

It's a shame in either case: say what you want about Ubisoft, we've received a lot of great games in the past few years. They're being sunk by a small handful of bad titles, and some really really really bad management. Mostly the latter, in my opinion.

Anyway, it's early into this ordeal, might be that nothing happens or they just get completely shut down (though you could argue Ubisoft is too big to fail).

Mostly just worried what happens to the games I bought, as Ubisoft is definitely the type of company that would dick over their consumer if it meant they got a higher price when they cashed out. Not many companies have fully revoked purchased titles, even after they pulled them from the market (you can still install purchased copies), but if any company would be the first I'd say Ubisoft could be them.

@uninspiredcup: Isn't that the monetization director at Ubisoft?

@uninspiredcup: "monetization director" is a title/job that should not exist.

I agree with his point but it sort of lands different when someone like that says it. I don't like to admit that, but...well, it's how I feel lol.

It's like if Hitler *insert name of someone you hate* went on for an hour about how cute and adorable kittens are, it'd kind of ruin kittens for you, you know?

*Heyooooooooooo only a few posts in and we already got a Hitler comparison going, yay internet!

**Actually now that I think about, someone like a "monetization director" is probably one of the reasons Ubsisoft ultimately (possibly) crashed and burned. He doesn't get to take the high road. **** that guy. Was he the dude that put NFT's into Ghost Recon!?

Hey man, you've got to care about those low level Nazis who were just trying to get by.

Stop cheering, won't someone think of ze Hitlerjugend

Wúnderbar!

For all the hate they get, I actually really enjoy Assassin's Creed Games.

Fragile men crying, bullying, making racist/sexist/homophobic/xenophobic comments and death threatening folks when they are not being pandered to? Sounds on brand.

Yup, they've been pretty solid. One or two stinkers, but even those were not really stinkers. I thought AC Mirage was pretty good, not sure why it got so much hate.

Who is?

@mrbojangles25: No one in this thread so far.😊 But the folks described in comment #2.

This is what happens when you try to pander to a "Modern Audience" when in reality, it doesn't exist.

Tencent planning on buying Ubisoft. Not. Good. How did we get lax on Tencent after what happened with them and Activision-Blizzard in 2019?

“monetization director", yeah you can go f*** off mate!

“monetization director", yeah you can go f*** off mate!

Having kinda of a Saddenfreud right now regarding Ubisoft.

Don't wanna be mean, but it is kinda funny when a company's "Monetization Director" comes out to try to give the audience a moral speech.

No offense to Tencent (genuinely), but I wouldn’t expect the takeover to succeed with staff.

If I’m EA, T2, Sony, or MS, I’d be out to poach as much talent as possible with project contracts and new studio formations.

I hope things get better for them, I have some friends working there and it would suck for them (or anyone else at Ubisoft) to lose their jobs because of bad management and some poor decisions. Hopefully they can figure out how to hit their targets while also making their customers happy.

I would tell the people at Ubisoft to ignore the vocal minority. They don't represent all gamers, and drawing attention to their BS will only give it oxygen and amplify it. But if the company is doing poorly, they need to communicate to gamers that they understand the criticisms people may have and will try to do better.

I know that System Wars has quite a lot of Ubisoft haters. I am not one of them. I like many of Ubisoft's franchises and games. Yes, they take their microtransaction BS too far, but I am still able to play their games without paying a single dime for microtransactions.

Seems like a good day for shareholders, regardless with what happens to company when it switches hands.

Give Splinter cell to IO interactive. and Ubi can go.

I keep saying they need to scale back and make smaller games with less padding, but then apparently PoP Lost Crown didn't sell much either. So it seems that I, some internet rando, don't have the answers either. Shocking.

Won't stop me from having an opinion though. I hope they don't merge. Ubisoft has a great stable of IPs and they could turn things around if they got their ambitions in line with reality. A buyout is just a quick fix to placate ADHD shareholders who believe in fairy tales of endless growth, and get big mad whenever reality catches up to them.

I think the best case scenario might be for Ubisoft to go private. I think Tencent buying them is the worst case possible.

I have liked many games they have made over the years, but I feel like they have lost their soul. In particular I feel like they have tried to find "formulas" to assemble games as you do cars. Problem is their games are just to big, too bloated and once you finish one of them you kind of hesitate to buy another.

They definitely need some kind of reset. I'd prefer if they were not bought by a Chinese company though as they are all connected to the CCP. Given how tech companies suck up all the data they can about their customers, it seems like the west should not give the CCP that kind of access. Maybe I'm paranoid...

"You'd better get used to not owning your games"

"You'd better get used to us not giving you our money"

The bold 100%. I wasn't aware that Lost Crown didn't do well.

@uninspiredcup said:

Some online cope. nomnomnonmnom

Is this guy for real? A fucking Monetization Director! He is the reason we are in this mess. Just as bad as companies that have Diversity and Inclusion Officers. Why do we need these positions? Thanks for ruining gaming and then being a little bitch when people call you out and don't give in to your bullshit. Go fuk yourself Stevy Chassard.

@BassMan said:

@uninspiredcup said:

Some online cope. nomnomnonmnom

Is this guy for real? A fucking Director of Monetization! He is the reason we are in this mess. Just as bad as companies that have Diversity and Inclusion Officers. Why do we need these positions? Thanks for ruining gaming and then being a little bitch when people call you out and don't give in to your bullshit. Go fuk yourself Stevy Chassard.

Sometimes you have to lose everything to learn a lesson! Simple as that!

The nerve to beg for sympathy is laughable😂 Why would I feel bad for people who are not only utterly incompetent but also openly hateful? Stop making games for certain gamers who don’t care about video games unless you want to lose money and your job. It should be common sense...but Ubisoft however found out the hard way when Star Wars: Outlaws flopped in their faces. There's a reason why EA's Star Wars games didn't flop as they aren't chasing a certain group of people (yet) and the Jedi games are still superior.

Look, I really liked Ubisoft games since the dawn of Prince of Persia, Splinter Cell, Rainbow 6, and the first Watch Dogs. But this is NOT the Ubisoft company I once loved and grew up with. This is a different Ubi company.

Course it didn't. Despite PoP: SoT practically giving birth to Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft, like Capcom (Resident Evil/Monster Hunter/Street Fighter) will want nothing to do with their IPs that don't make them money.

I don't know if this is news, but allegedly Skull and Bones cost $600+ million to develop and bring to market. No wonder they were calling it "the first AAAA" game.

I do remember how we sort of had a nice big collective laugh at that label when they announced it.

Sounds like it might be all rumors, though, as the reports have not been confirmed and the official, initial number of $200+ million stands.

Still...I hope publishers and developers learn from Ubisoft's (and Sony's) failures and recognize that success in the GaaS market are exceptions to the rule (the rule being that we generally don't like the GaaS model).

Because of people like yourself.😌

@uninspiredcup said:

Some online cope. nomnomnonmnom

if only he had some self awareness

@Macutchi said:

if only he had some self awareness

Nah! Just some. 🙃

Tencent sucks, but the higher-ups at Ubisoft are clueless. I’d like to think that other companies will learn but I’m not hopeful.

Honestly Ubi deserve what they get, but does suck for the actual talented devs and staff in the quagmire.

Now the CCP will have access to all Ubisoft's user data harvesting.

@Pedro: Nice try. I don't mind working with a diverse team as long as everyone pulls their weight and deserves to be there. Getting hired over more qualified candidates just because a company is trying to hit a DEI quota is wrong. Having to run design decisions by Diversity and Inclusion offers to make sure the game is woke enough to please ESG investors is wrong. Games and development teams suffer as a result. Stop forcing woke shit.

A company that's a shell of its former self, dragged down by horrible management.

From their self-proclaimed AAAA game, to taking games offline permanently, these are just some of the decisions why gamers hate them now. Plus their recent games have been really boring and shallow, so not a lot of people bought them.

Firstly, folks being hired over more qualified people has occurred millions of times. The issue of minorities/women not being hired because of what they look like despite being qualified is not only well documented and still occur, but it was so bad that the affirmative action was created just to counter this problem. Even with this measurement like that, the problem still persists. You have accused folks of being hired and unqualified purely based on what they look like, so don't come and pretend like qualifications means anything to you. You don't question when it is a white male. Your comment history has demonstrated this over and over again. So, yes, you are the reason why those positions exists. Continue pushing your woke boogieman nonsense, we all know the origins of this hate.😌

I hope that they sell off some of their IPs to less shit companies ... but I can't think of a publisher that doesn't suck ass. Maybe THQ Nordic?

Look I have no interest in their slop checklist simulators and they have reaped what they sow for the most part, but I do think the celebration of their death is a bit much. Prince of Persia the Lost Crown was actually a good game and that came out this year. Tencent buying them will only make things worse as Ubisoft is mostly just incompetent, Tencent is competently evil by contrast.

People keep saying this, but when I ask if there was anything woke about Outlaws besides the bad haircut, no one has an answer. Is a 70's haircut really that much of a deal-breaker?

Think back to when this game started development, probably five or six years ago. Gamers were pissed at EA over monetization of Battlefront 2, and cancelling that Amy Hennig/Visceral single-player game. Hennig's game was said to be about the underbelly of the SW universe in the OT era, with no (or not much) emphasis on Jedi or the force. Outlaws pretty much came in direct response to that, and honestly, the core concept is solid. I'd even say making the protagonist a chick was a good call since a dude would have felt like diet-Dash Rendar, or diet-diet-Han Solo.

How is Tencent buying out Ubisoft going to kill Ubisoft? Previous companies purchased by Tencent have continued to be successful.

I have played Star Wars Outlaws and completed the game 3 weeks ago. I like it, but not as much as EA's Jedi games to a degree. Kay's hair wasn't the problem or how she looked, the whole game was slowly pandering to a lesser degree. Is it really woke? ( I really don't use the 'w' word as it truly lost its meaning) No, not really. I think there is a lot of misinformation, drama, and weirdness surrounding Outlaws.

The open world is definitely not a cookie-cutter Ubisoft game. There is way less content in the game compared to most Ubisoft games, and a lot of the side content is hidden and requires you to explore to find it. I also don’t believe it’s a hate train for clicks and views, well maybe a small part is, but there are big outlets and content creators who clearly do not need the views or clicks who didn’t like the game. The story is very lackluster, the fact that EA has a strong position on the whole Star Wars license, its hard to see someone else take a wack at it. Cal Kestis in the Jedi games is a very well-written character, but Kay however needs more time to get her shine on. The only thing I can tell anyone here is to play both Outlaws and Jedi Survivor to see the major difference.

The big franchises aren't going anywhere regardless of what happens. They will just change hands. They will likely sell the smaller IPs to individual studios and the lions share to a big publisher like Tencent. That is if they sell at all... this isn't the first time Ubisoft is supposedly on the rocks.

Monetization director, lmao. And calls others non-decent human beings. Hopefully he was seriously bullied after that post.

My favourite has to be the diversity officer, truly the most crucial of roles in any games' development process.

You'll always find too that any diversity officer will be either black, woman or trans. So it's the least diverse role out there

It's a token hire more than anything, the most racist, sexist and least inclusive hires of them all.

Don't you know we're still in the 50s and at war with communism?

China = bad

Makes sense. They haven't made a great game in...what, decades? Plus that Skull and Bones game probably killed half the company.

This is what happens when investo- hang on, sorry, the clown car just started unloading people into this thread and it's getting hard to have an actual conversation.

As I was saying, when you fail to capitalise on your IPs, you- sorry again. Too many clowns hitting each other with novelty balloons and crying about diversity. Hard for anyone to have an intelligent conversation when that circus is in town.

I will call out a shit employee regardless of what they look like. Don't hire dumb useless people. Especially if it is just to hit some quota. Try to spin it all you want, but I am not going to give into some woke bullies and forced bullshit.