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Ubisoft is reportedly working on a deal to unload its majority stake to Epic Games parent company Tencent. Based on Bloomberg, sources near the matter have said that the Guillemot Brothers Ltd. have entered into negotiations with Tencent for a possible buyout. The rumor comes as Ubisoft’s latest AAA(A) game Star Wars Outlaws has reportedly flopped on an epic level. It has been said that the sport has only sold enough units to equal $1 million of a $70 million budget, not including marketing costs. This follows one other underwhelming variety of sales for its adaptation of James Cameron’s blockbuster franchise, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.
Those two major investments by Ubisoft will not be the one missteps to affect the publisher. Its many delays to launch its online naval and pirate adventure game Skull and Bones did not capture a serious player base after which there was also a proposed entry within the NFT market which never gained traction. From microtransactions to a game launcher many have complained about, Ubisoft has not done well within the PC marketplace for a while and aside from occasional spikes of interest in its long-running Assassins Creed franchise the publisher has had quite a few financial woes. Not long after news that Ubisoft is reportedly in talks with Tencent, Ubisoft’s shares rose the very best since its public offering in 1996.
Per Bloomberg:
- “The Chinese tech company and Guillemot Brothers Ltd. have been speaking with advisers to assist explore ways to stabilize Ubisoft and bolster its value, the people said, asked to not be identified discussing a non-public matter.”
- “One in all the probabilities being discussed would involve teaming as much as take the corporate private, in line with the people.”
- “Ubisoft shares rose as much as 33% in Paris on Friday following the Bloomberg News report, the steepest gain because the company’s 1996 initial public offering.”
A deal between the 2 may very well be considered a deal made, well, somewhere as feelings by PC gamers will not be necessarily the most effective towards either. Nonetheless, Ubisoft’s struggles over the past decade are well documented and Tencent’s resources are deep. While extreme changes could occur with such a deal it’d actually be the Hail Mary Ubisoft must survive but only time will tell.
