Assassin’s Creed studio Ubisoft is reportedly considering creating a new gaming-focused business entity that will include some of its core IP, including the aforementioned Assassin’s Creed series.
Per a Bloomberg report (which is behind a paywall), Ubisoft has contacted some of its shareholders, including Tencent, to see if they have any interest in purchasing a minority stake in the new venture.
Bloomberg, which cites “people familiar with the situation”, says that no final decision has been made as yet and that considerations are still ongoing. If this report is true, though, it’s probably part of Ubisoft and its shareholders’ ongoing exploration of options regarding what has been a pretty rough time for the studio recently.
Back in September, Ubisoft announced it was delaying upcoming flagship RPG Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and as part of the same report in which the delay was revealed, the company also acknowledged that open-world game Star Wars Outlaws had underperformed.
Following that announcement, an activist Ubisoft shareholder called for “strategic and structural change” at the company, and Ubisoft’s woes continued to mount with employee strikes, a data policy lawsuit, and, uh, a weird NFT game launch.
As part of its fiscal report for the first half of last year, Ubisoft revealed it was effectively hemorrhaging money, and the studio would go on to shut down FPS XDefiant and close down three of its locations in an effort to cut costs.
Whether or not the new venture would solve any of these problems remains to be seen, but it seems like an attempt to spin off the more successful elements of the business in order to drum up interest and value.
As for what effect the new entity would have on Ubisoft’s strategy with regards to its games, that remains to be seen. After all, let’s not forget Ubisoft hasn’t officially confirmed this move, nor has it been finalized according to Bloomberg’s sources. Stay tuned for more.
