Ubsioft will spin off its most successful game franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege, into a separate subsidiary thanks to a $1.25 billion investment from Chinese conglomerate Tencent. The massive deal allows the founding Guillemot family to remain in control of the publisher despite its recent struggles and cratering share price.
The details of the agreement are complex and it’s not immediately clear how it will all hash out in practice. The new entity doesn’t have a name yet but will have its own board of supervisors and include Ubisoft studios Montreal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia. Those teams will be in charge of the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege franchises moving forward, as well as their back catalogs. But all of it will still report up to Ubisoft proper and its current CEO, Yves Guillemot.
“With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success,” Guillemot said in a press release on Thursday. “With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems.”
On a call with investors following the announcement, however, the company’s leadership clarified that Ubisoft 2, or whatever it ends up being called, will still report up to Guillemot. “There will be a dedicated management under the supervision of a board that will be controlled by Ubisoft,” CFO Frederick Duguet told investors. “So Ubisoft will continue controlling and consolidating this entity.”
The major deal comes after months of speculation about a possible sale of the French publisher following a year of poor sales for some of its biggest recent blockbusters, including Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws, as well as delays and cancellations of other big releases, including free-to-play shooter The Division Heartland. Those rumors included a shareholder report that Ubisoft was even exploring a sale of some of its franchises to Microsoft and others. Under the new structure, series like The Division, Ghost Recon, The Crew, Prince of Persia, and Rayman will remain under the broader Ubisoft umbrella.
Ubisoft is a sprawling organization with studios and employees spread out all over the world. The complex web facilitates a co-development process that the company uses to ship massive games in shorter time periods. But that also means that there’s no clean delineation between who works on what. While The Montreal and Quebec studios lead development on the Assassin’s Creed franchise, many employees within those offices still work on other franchises as needed.
Asked by investors how many of Ubisoft’s over 17,000 employees would be moving to the new group, the company said it was still too early to tell. That sentiment was echoed in an email sent to staff today from Ubisoft head of studios Marie-Sophie de Waubert. This brings some uncertainty and questions,” she wrote in an email obtained by Insider Gaming. “Right now, we may not have all the detailed answers, but we are committed to communicating with you transparently and regularly.”
Two key provisions of the new agreement are that Tencent cannot sell its 25 percent equity stake for at least five years and Ubisoft “may not cease to hold a majority of New subsidiary voting rights and share capital for a 2-year period.” In the near term at least, the $1.25 billion deal sounds more like a financial instrument than anything else, and one that provides Ubisoft’s current ownership with more time to try to improve the company’s financial outlook. Prior to Assassin’s Creed Shadow’s launch, many asked if it would be enough to save the company from being broken up and sold for parts. For now at least, it seems like it won’t need to.
Update 3/27/2025 2:35 p.m. ET: Added more context from the investor call and internal emails.
.