Ubisoft’s shares saw a jump in value earlier today, increasing and holding between 13% and 16% at US$13.30 (~RM58) per share. The appreciation in value is seemingly because of the prospect of a buyout of the studio by the Chinese conglomerate, Tencent, which is looming ever closer.
Sources close to the issue told Reuters that the Guillemot family, who are the largest and founding shareholders of Ubisoft, is looking at different avenues in which the buyout can occur without reducing its control over the company. Unsurprisingly, Tencent isn’t entirely happy with the stance and has said that it wants more of a controlling, decision-making power, should it choose to buyout the company. At current, the Guillemot family retains the controlling shares of 20.5%.
Like so many other companies, Ubisoft has been struggling to stay afloat in the video games market, post-pandemic. Just this week, the studio decided to pull the plug on XDefiant, with the game’s last month set for June 2025, which is just a little past a year from when the game launched in May this year. Reasons for its demise include poor player numbers and lack of player spending in-game.
Of course, one cannot talk about the current state of Ubisoft without also talking about the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows and the controversy that has followed it since its unveiling. Originally scheduled to launch on 15 November, the studio delayed it to 15 February next year, citing the need to polish the game further as the primary reason, as well as having learned from its lacklustre reception and sales of Star Wars Outlaws. The current launch date is, in our opinion, pretty ballsy, given that Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Yotei is also expected to launch sometime within the same timeframe.
(Source: Reuters)
