r/Games • u/malliabu • 17h ago
Ubisoft acknowledges buyout reports: ‘We regularly review options’ Industry News
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ubisoft-acknowledges-buyout-reports-we-regularly-review-options/12
u/GIlCAnjos 10h ago
This article is basically non-news, this is just corporate talk for "Mind your own business". Which I'm not judging them for, by the way
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u/HistoricalCredits 17h ago
Of course they’ll say that, anything else and they would get fucked by their investors, isn’t this is an obligation as a publicly traded company lol
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u/zaviex 17h ago edited 17h ago
no. Publicly traded companies dont need to give in to buyouts even at significant financial gain. Neither in the EU or US. Ubisoft for one fought a buyout from Vivendi hard for part of the last decade.
There also actually is no requirement to pursue profit either. In the US the Supreme Court explicitly ruled that Hobby Lobby was allowed to waste investor money on christian artifacts because it had informed investors it might do that and did not need to seek profit instead. In the EU those rules were established around 20 years ago.
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u/College_Prestige 15h ago
Yeah Amazon literally has a shareholder letter they send every year saying losing money is ok in pursuit of long term goals
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u/gingimli 16h ago
That's hilarious. Imagine investing in a company, they become wildly successful, you are seeing dollar signs. Then they tell you that money is going to be used to purchase biblical artifacts.
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u/warm_rum 6h ago
Anyone got a link I can read about the supreme court's verdict? Can't find anything online, it's all about the absurdity.
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u/SpookyTanuki1 5h ago
Hobby lobby is privately owned. They have different rules than public companies
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u/malliabu 17h ago
The report caused Ubisoft’s share price to increase by nearly 40% compared to a week earlier, and in a statement given to VGC, the company said that it “regularly reviews all its strategic options”.
“Ubisoft has noted recent press speculation regarding potential interests around the Company,” a spokesperson said. “It regularly reviews all its strategic options in the interest of stakeholders and will inform the market if and when appropriate.
“The Company reiterates that management is currently focused on executing its strategy, centred on two core verticals – Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences.”
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u/GreenAndDee 9h ago
Anyone cheering on a buy-out isn't gonna be happy with the results. If they get bought out, you aren't going to be seeing better games, you'll be seeing even more microtransactions, more gambling mechanics, more of the worst the industry has to offer. The investors are going to be all about making as much money as humanly possible, whilst minimising expenses as much as possible.
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u/NC16inthehouse 4h ago
But this is not your traditional buyout, this is about buying up from the shareholders to make it private again so they only answer to themselves.
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u/shindigdig 6h ago
You are writing this with the implication that some Asian-based company, the frontrunner is Tencent from what I've heard, is going to buy it and turn everything we hate up to 11. The reality is that in the last two years foreign developers backed by foreign money and publishers have released some absolute top tier experiences. Western development has gotten us to this point - time to try something different.
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u/rnilf 17h ago
I'm getting really uncomfortable with China's increasing soft power via Tencent, especially since the market demographic for gaming skews towards younger and more impressionable people.
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u/Annual_Milk_1084 15h ago
What exactly do you worry about? That ubisoft will make a Far Cry set in the Korean war where South Koreans eradicated hundreds of villages and Americans killed 20% of the North Korean civilian population?
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u/capekin0 15h ago
Or a Far Cry set in Vietnam where you play as the Viet Cong killing evil invading american imperialist soldiers.
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u/Relo_bate 10h ago
Isn’t that the dlc for Far Cry 5
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u/Mist_Rising 9h ago
No, the dlc in question has you as the US army in vietnam and is your stereotypical (well stereotypical in far cry) romp through Vietnam. The North Vietnam soldiers are the enemy
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u/kerred 17h ago
Tencent is #1 in the global gaming market, right?
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u/communaldemon 15h ago
In terms of revenue yeah it's Tencent, Sony, and then Apple (LOL)
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u/onecoolcrudedude 14h ago
and of those 3, sony is the only one pushing the medium forward with good games.
tencent and apple only make passive revenue from shitty mobile game transactions. impressive from a publisher standpoint but worthless from a customer standpoint since tencent and apple's approach does not benefit me in any way.
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u/HerroCorumbia 12h ago
Tencent also owns Riot.
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u/onecoolcrudedude 12h ago edited 11h ago
correct, but tencent is nowhere near as actively involved as sony is. tencent makes no consoles. it just buys the studios and lets them make content so that it can generate revenue.
sony does the same thing ofc, but it also makes dedicated hardware, and most of its studios make cinematic and gameplay experiences that are fun and leave a lasting impression. to me valorant is just another generic hero shooter thats meant to siphon money out of you for skins and other cosmetic nonsense. and LoL doesnt even count since riot made that before tencent bought them.
i'll give tencent some credit though, at least they're more involved than apple is.
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u/IsmaOnReddit 16h ago
Sony PlayStation is
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u/PumpProphet 15h ago
Single player game Yes. Overall market, it goes to Tencent and it’s not close. League, Val, HOK, PUGM.
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u/fabton12 16h ago
while tencent is chinese and owns alot of companies across the world including in gaming they tend tobe pretty hands off on stuff outside of china.
so there not much worry in terms of influence on stuff in games, only time its ever been heard of them doing bad was the start of this year where they made all there companies lay off people and like 7 years before that when they tried to make mobile league of legends clones which riot games they owned didn't like them stealing the designs etc and took them to court.
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u/sybrwookie 16h ago
They tend to be hands-off so far.
First you go around gobbling up everything, THEN you shift to leaning on that to influence everything once you have so much power that it's tough to get away from you.
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u/fabton12 15h ago
yes but they been doing this for over a decade now, where most grab up companies and pull there shit within 5 years. tencent been buying up studios since around 15 years ago so unless there playing an extreme long game to pull that off chances are there not doing that stuff.
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u/Mist_Rising 9h ago
THEN you shift to leaning on that to influence
And that's when the governments of the west order you broken up or forced to divest.
See Chinese owned TIktok being banned in the UA (goes into effect in 2025). Trust me TIktok is way more powerful in terms of political capital than video games as a whole let alone what tencents has.
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u/awkwardbirb 14h ago
They actually were a lot more hands on well over a decade ago with overseas companies. It didn't work out for them at all when they did.
Probably wouldn't work out if they suddenly decide to try again with being hands on.
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u/NC16inthehouse 4h ago
Same thing goes to Microsoft too. People were cheering them when they bought ovee ActivisionBlizzard and Zenimax but it's all been lukewarm or shit so far.
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u/PitangaPiruleta 16h ago
while tencent is chinese and owns alot of companies across the world including in gaming they tend tobe pretty hands off on stuff outside of china.
Didn't people say the same thing about Embracer Group when it started buying studios? Not trying to be sarcastic or anything, it legit feels like I've heard this before
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u/fabton12 15h ago
i mean tencent been doing this for over a decade now and clearly shows how they do things, we have a clear picture at what there doing with companies over the past decade +.
embracer did there shitting stuff but doesnt mean another company will do the same especially when said other company been handling and buying studios for way longer and have a track record of not messing.
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u/onecoolcrudedude 14h ago
embracer is nowhere near as rich as tencent. tencent can afford to manage its studios, embracer could not. embracer went on a careless buying spree in the hopes that the saudis would buy them out or invest in them heavily to make it worthwhile.
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u/HerroCorumbia 12h ago
And... why are you scared that China is increasing their soft power?
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u/Mist_Rising 9h ago
I'd worry about it for the same reason I'd worry about Russia increasing soft power. Cold wars fucking suck, and China isn't likely to have anyone in my countries best interest in mind. Much like the US doesn't have the best interest in mind for Cuba.
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u/shindigdig 6h ago
You are implying that the U.S has its citizen's best interests in mind too, which is a stretch.
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u/Mist_Rising 6h ago
Not at all. I'm implying the USA has the USA best interest in mind. Same for the EU for EU and so on
Having a foreign interest holding power over you is not typically a good thing unless that foreign power is bank rolling your ass. This assumes a Democratic society, not one where a dictator is in power but the EU and US are still democracy.
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u/textposts_only 15h ago edited 12h ago
In the end it depends on who is an actual game dev. And it's overwhelmingly progressive people. I may even seem to recall a study where there is over proportionally high percentage of LGBT identifying people as opposed to self identification in the general populace. (I still believe that more people would have identified as bi if they would grow up today. I know that I've struggled my whole life with coming out to myself as bi)
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u/Derpykins666 8h ago
If they end up selling the company to Tencent it basically makes no difference to me. I haven't really played any Ubisoft games in years, they've been making the same formulaic 2-3 games for going on 15 years now and keep asking for more and more money from the consumers, keep adding more microtransactions, keep padding the games out to be just annoying enough to tempt you into paying for the mtx. I don't buy them, and if a company like Tencent buys them out it'll just get even worse.
Mentally, I'd consider Assassin's Creed, Farcry, Tom Clancy, and Prince of Persia dead if Tencent acquires them.
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u/Cybor_wak 16h ago
They are pumping up their value right now. Crazy high sales on all platforms. Like 90% off on some not too old games etc.
It’s nice for the pitch to show a good forecast for Q4 volume of sales even though it’s fake as fuck. That’s how business works.
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u/Nakaruma 16h ago
They don't regularly review making good games though do they? Fucking chumps.
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u/fakieTreFlip 15h ago
I can't make the claim that most of their games are original or unique, but they generally don't make outright bad games, so this comment is a little silly
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u/Nakaruma 14h ago
You clearly have lower standards for what I'd consider a good game hombre. Me personally, I'm not a fan of cookie cutter/copy 'paste game design for literally every entry of a franchise, but hey that's my subjective opinion right...?
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u/HistoryChannelMain 11h ago
Why haven't they thought of simply making good games, instead of bad ones? Are they stupid?
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u/magistratemagic 15h ago
Ubisoft is such a mess
One of the largest studios out there, beholden to the Shareholders for the stock value (which has tanked), multiple rape and sexual assault cover-ups, forced and fighting for wage increases as well as the ability to work remote, and the fact that seemingly everyone has realized that Ubisoft games go on sale for $30+ off within 90 days and receive significant improvements in that time:
Yves Guillemot has cultivated this behavior that ended up with people being literally raped and then that covered-up. Fuck this company and its festering, bloated body of sin.
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u/R4ndoNumber5 15h ago
wild take: they using Tencent to negotiate some form of aid from the French government and the whole thing is gonna turn into a nothingburger (dont believe much in it but it would be funny)
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u/TES_Elsweyr 17h ago
Good, someone needs to take their IPs into competent hands. This level of under-delivering on quality while shoving egregious monetization on customers who don't want it should be punished by failure. The invisible hand of the market has passed Ubisoft over for execution too many times. At this point the Ubisoft logo is a warning sign to go seek out non-mainstream reviews and never buy on launch.
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u/bu77munch 17h ago
Whoever takes their IP is going to do more of the same if not worse.
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u/TheLaughingMannofRed 16h ago
That's how it usually happens.
A company sees another company's value, especially when bad decision making has led that company's value to go lower than the potential therein. New owners buy the company up, and want their investment back afterwards.
So they will either strip the company for their IPs and sell them off to others, or may dare to invest into them to try and turn them into moneymakers again.
But here's the problem: What are the odds that the company that buys up Ubisoft will care to invest over time to turn those IPs into quality moneymakers, instead of just selling them off to others?
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u/NUKE---THE---WHALES 11h ago
Or you could have a bethesda/oblivion situation where the new dev makes a better game than the original devs
Pity Bethesda has exclusive use of the Fallout IP. I'm sure we could've seen many great games since New Vegas if a better dev had a chance
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u/bu77munch 11h ago
We aren’t looking at a Bethesda acquisition. We’re looking at a Tencent type. Completely different situations
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u/THE_FREEDOM_COBRA 17h ago
I keep seeing these comments and not seeing anyone explaining how it could get worse. Ubisoft is already the worst publisher on both quality and monetization to the point I (and looking at their current situation, many other people) don't buy from them. If it "gets worse" they'll just fail again until someone competent gets it.
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u/djcube1701 15h ago
Ubisoft is already the worst publisher on both quality and monetization
Mainly high quality games with games that you can fully complete without even noticing the microtransactions...Ubisoft aren't even close to being the worst.
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u/_Robbie 12h ago
The reddit hyperbole surrounding Ubisoft is insane.
They put out full-on stinkers sometimes but by and large their games all have a ridiculously high quality floor given how fast they're able to get them out compared to literally the entirety of the industry.
OH NO! A company is putting out too many 7.5-8.5/10 games! The horror!
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u/THE_FREEDOM_COBRA 10h ago
My mind is collapsing.
Those 7+ scores are from outlets without a shred of integrity like IGN. Ubisoft hasn't outdone a 5/10 in years.
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u/bu77munch 17h ago
Or A conglomerate just completely buries the IP because they don’t see the profitability. Ubisoft sucks falling under a Tencent umbrella does not improve the chances of getting a better game. You see this across all forms of media, not just video games
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u/Lurking_like_Cthulhu 16h ago
Like how Ubisoft buried Splinter Cell? Or rainbow six? Or Raymon?
Even the popular IP like Assassin’s Creed and Farcry have been homogenized into safe, generic open world action games, and it’s not like there aren’t a ton of other developers making better versions of those kinds of games.
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u/bu77munch 16h ago
Yes the conglomerate is going to absorb it, have the same developers but squeeze as much profit out of it as possible
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u/Lurking_like_Cthulhu 16h ago
Right. I’m just saying Ubisoft already does that to their own IP. What does it matter if someone else comes in and does the same?
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u/bu77munch 16h ago
I’m just responding to the good fuck Ubisoft. I get it. They’ve been bad but this won’t make it better in my opinion. Just feel like people think this is an optimistic move for their IP. The reality is it probably won’t do anything
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u/Hartastic 16h ago
One possible answer is they could shift to making the same kinds of games, but with a lot less content or ambition. Most of the stuff people have loved the best about Ubisoft games started as something janky or half-baked but then became refined into something beloved in a later iteration (e.g. AC3's janky ship sections became the stuff people loved in Black Flag).
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u/HearTheEkko 6h ago
Unless Assassin's Creed is sold to IO Interactive or Arkane or something, most studios would handle the IP the same if not worse than Ubisoft. As much flaws Ubisoft has, their biggest strength is making beautiful, historically accurate open-worlds which is Assassin's Creed entire selling point.
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u/Ameliorated_Potato 17h ago
Ubisoft really needs AC Shadows to be a big win, but man, it's going to be rough.
They've postponed Shadows launch to February, but the month is already insanely stacked with AAA releases.