Tencent acquires 25% stake in Ubisoft's new gaming subsidiary

[Hunchman801]

Ubisoft just announced that it is forming a subsidiary that will hold licenses for the Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six franchises, and Tencent is set to invest €1.16 billion for a 25% stake in it.

No mention of Rayman, so I don't expect this to change anything for the series, but who knows?

[Master]

So would this effectively be a holding company, and they would be divesting their ownership of those franchises from themselves to this new company?

IP and licensing is confusing...

[Hunchman801]

Yes, that's the idea:

Ubisoft will grant an exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual license to its top three games to the new subsidiary, in return for a royalty.

Apparently, the proceeds will be used to pay down debt, ideally improving the outlook for the rest of the company (and the remaining franchises).

[Master]

It's certainly a strange set-up, but I'm not going to pretend I understand the upper echelons of corporate governance and structure. As for this new subsidiary, I did find this press release:
https://staticctf.ubisoft.com/8aefmxkxp ... vfinal.pdf

Relationship between the new subsidiary and Ubisoft Entertainment:
- The new subsidiary would include the teams developing the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia as well as the back-catalog and any new games currently under development or to be developed.
- The new subsidiary would be granted by Ubisoft a worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual license in respect of the intellectual property and similar proprietary rights owned or licensable by Ubisoft in relation to Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry in exchange for a royalty.

So pretty much as you say, UbiSoft still owns the properties, but it sounds like the subsidiary will be in control of how the properties are used? Also interesting is the transfer of some of Ubi's studios to this new subsidiary. (Montreal is one their premier studios, is it not?)

As for the agreement, it sounds like UbiSoft will still have substantial control and can't be overtaken for at least 2 years when it comes to shares and voting rights.

[Game Ze 2]

Tencent's reputation in the gaming industry is not good……

[Hunchman801]

Looks like the main purpose of the operation is for Ubisoft to pay off debt while retaining significant control of its IPs, but with a 10% share in the company itself and 25% in the subsidiary, Tencent will certainly have significant influence.

[Tribelle2026]

I guess this means Ubisoft won't be publishing any more Winnie the Pooh games.

[Hunchman801]

I wouldn't be against a video game adaptation of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.

[Greengoop]

Well, this is… certainly news. I’m definitely not the biggest fan of this

[Rsandee]

Well, this is… certainly news. I’m definitely not the biggest fan of this

I feel the same way. Not much to say about this one.

[Master]

So it sounds like something's going on with UbiSoft again, they've suspended trading, and it sounds like there might be some behind the scenes shenanigans afoot: https://www.reuters.com/business/ubisof ... 025-11-13/

I do wonder if they're in a pretty bad position, and what it could mean going forward.

[Hunchman801]

The most widely speculated reason is that they might be going private in a partnership with Tencent, but we shall know very soon.

[Hunchman801]

A quick bump to say that the delay in earnings was apparently caused by an accounting issue, and that Ubisoft wasn't acquired.

[Master]

Well that's anticlimactic. Still I guess better that then potentially seeing those upcoming projects being canned if an acquisition did happen.

[RaypersonNikol]

A quick bump to say that the delay in earnings was apparently caused by an accounting issue, and that Ubisoft wasn't acquired.

So Ubisoft is still independent... kinda? :'D

[Hunchman801]

Well, since 2022 Tencent has a 49.9% share in Ubisoft's holding company.