Ubisoft Sells Off HUGE Franchises to Tencent!

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Summary

  • Ubisoft’s new subsidiary, backed by Tencent, will manage some of its key franchises, including Assassin’s Creed.
  • Financial struggles have prompted Ubisoft to offload IPs due to rising costs and underperforming games.
  • Tencent’s investment in the new venture aims to secure the long-term success of these franchises.

Ubisoft has established a new company, with support from Tencent, the prominent Chinese gaming corporation. This new entity will manage some of Ubisoft’s premier game franchises, such as Assassin’s Creed. This strategic shift by Ubisoft is a response to a financially challenging phase they have been experiencing due to several video games that did not meet commercial expectations upon release.

Regardless of its popular gaming franchises like Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia, Ubisoft has faced challenges in its business operations. These struggles can be attributed to increasing production costs and underperforming major game releases. The year 2024 was particularly tough for the French company, as its flagship games such as Star Wars Outlaws, Skull and Bones, and XDefiant fell short of their sales targets. This resulted in a drop in share prices and a significant decrease in revenue. Despite the successful launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows at the beginning of 2025, which was often delayed, Ubisoft has decided to restructure its collection of intellectual properties (IPs) by transferring some to a separate subsidiary.

On March 27th, Ubisoft revealed the establishment of a new company branch. This new entity will take over the rights to Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six from Ubisoft, in exchange for royalties paid back to the parent company. The market value of this new venture is estimated at €4 billion (approximately USD 4.3 billion). Tencent has agreed to invest €1.16 billion (approximately USD 1.25 billion) to secure a 25% stake in this new subsidiary by the end of 2025. This announcement follows rumors in recent months about a possible partnership between Ubisoft and Tencent. Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and CEO of Ubisoft, stated that this move will help bolster their financial position and set the stage for the long-term prosperity of the three franchises involved in the transaction.

Ubisoft’s New Tencent-Backed Subsidiary to Take Over Its Key Franchises

In the course of the IP restructuring, the management team of the newly established subsidiary will oversee the future direction of titles like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. A diverse group of developers from Ubisoft studios located in Barcelona, Montreal, Quebec, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, and Sofia will make up the workforce for this new company. The firm, backed by Tencent, will also manage existing games within these franchises as well as those currently under development.

Ubisoft’s move to separate three of its top-performing brands into an independent subsidiary is quite substantial and could alter the way these intellectual properties are managed in the future. By streamlining their portfolio, it will be intriguing to find out which other franchises Ubisoft decides to prioritize moving forward, considering they’ve dedicated a considerable portion of their resources to the development of the Assassin’s Creed series for much of the last two decades.

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2025-03-27 23:24