Ubisoft is reportedly considering going private and selling itself to Tencent, which should make you a bit worried.
There’s been some breaking news around Ubisoft today. According to a reportfrom Bloomberg, the French video game industry giant is considering leaving the publicily-traded and family owned ways behind, to seek shelter from recent stock lows under Tencent’s umbrella. This should worry those who’ve been paying attention to major gaming news over the past few years.
It’s no secret that Ubisoft hasn’t been doing well as of late. The company’s stocks have dropped 54% in value this year, and investors have reportedly been pressuring the company to go private to help flip this downward trend. Tencent already owns around 9% of Ubisoft through previous investments (which helped fend off Vivendi in the past), and reports back in 2022 revealed Tencent wanted to increase its ownership in the company significantly.
It’s easy to see how Ubisoft got here. Recent releases haven’t been especially great, nor performed well. Everyone can (and will) point and chuckle at Skull & Bones, but recent releases like Star Wars Outlaws, XDefiant, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora haven’t exactly raked in the cash. Add on top of that big releases getting going missing (remember Beyond Good and Evil 2, where is that?), and the low it’s been enduring makes sense in this rough market.
But even still, we live in a post-Embracer disaster and Microsoft x Activision Blizzard acquisition world. It’s hard to be optimistic when we’ve seen in recent years that such big business moves leave many looking for work. Now, I don’t believe Tencent should be immediately slammed for the sins of Embracer and Microsoft’s suits, but there’s a good reason acquisitions leave a bad taste in mouths right now.
Also, let’s be real, this, if it comes to pass, could potentially be good for Ubisoft in the long term.
