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  • Re: Ubisoft + Tencent?

    From Spalls Hurgenson@spallshurgenson@gmail.com to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Sun Mar 23 12:13:27 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


    Well, the Guillemots must be breathing a sigh of relief. Their latest
    game is apparently doing quite well, with "Assassins Creed Shadows"
    apparently surpassing the launches of both Origins and Odyssey (but
    not Ragnarok?), with over two million users. It's being praised for
    its visuals and optimization on PC, and it has (at the moment, at
    least) 'very positive' reviews on Steam. So this doubtlessly takes a
    lot of wind out of the sails of the naysayers amongst the stockholders (especially AJ Investments, who were trying to forment investor
    rebellion) that the Guillemot family must be replaced.

    Which isn't to say the Guillemots /are/ right but it does take a lot
    of pressure off of them. They can now point at "Shadows" and say,
    "Hey, trust us, look how well this game is selling. We know what we're
    doing. Let's not rock the boat with unproven new CEOs" and most
    investors will probably listen.

    I don't know if "Shadows" is worth playing; I'm generally not a fan of
    the Guillemot family. But neither do I think any one that replaces
    them will really be any better. But things are probably less stressed
    out in the Guillemot mansions because of this news.



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  • From Spalls Hurgenson@spallshurgenson@gmail.com to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Sat Mar 29 11:26:35 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action

    On Sat, 15 Mar 2025 12:03:25 -0400, Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:


    Well, things must be bad at Ubisoft. After struggling with a string of
    games that had only middling sales, fighting to keep control of the
    company against hostile takeovers, and accusations of bad management,
    now there are reports that Ubisoft is seeking investors to help with
    some of its properties, including the Assassin Creed franchise. The
    Chinese multimedia firm, Tencent, seems the most likely to take
    Ubisoft up on the offer.*


    So apparently Ubisoft went forward with their plans to create a
    subsidiary with Tencent.*

    Honestly, I'm a bit surprised at this; I thought this was just a
    negotiating / delaying tactic being bandied about by the Guillemot in
    case "Assassins Creed Shadows" failed to deliver and they needed
    something to stop-gap any further takeover attempts. But now that
    "Shadows" has proven itself in the market, I expected this Tencent
    deal to fall on the wayside as an unnecessary dilution of Ubisoft's
    influence. But apparently the deal was further along than I expected.

    Presumably the Guillemot's will have majority shares in this new (as
    yet unnamed) subsidiary. Thus, even if the investors finally overcome
    the Guillemot _at Ubisoft_, the family will still control the 'family
    jewels' through the subsidiary. The subsidiary was granted a
    "worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual license" to the FarCry,
    Rainbow Six and Assassin Creed IPs.

    And Ubisoft getting a 1.25 billion USD payout from Tencent probably
    looks good on paper to the investors too. So maybe I shouldn't be so
    surprised that the deal went through.




    * linky-link time! Here is the official announcement: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/03/27/3050885/0/en/Ubisoft-announces-the-creation-of-a-new-subsidiary.html

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  • From Rin Stowleigh@rstowleigh@x-nospam-x.com to comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action on Sat Mar 29 13:46:09 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action


    Chinese culture doesn't buy all the woke bullshit, so it will probably
    result in better games overall.
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