Ubisoft is at crossroads. ?However it goes, change has to happen at the top,” says Tom Henderson
Ubisoft has had a difficult year, but the coming one won't be easy either. Tom Henderson summed up the company's situation while sharing his own conclusions and thoughts.
Ubisoft has experienced several extremely challenging years, leading many to foresee the company's collapse. In February 2021, the price of the French publisher's shares was €84.60. Now, this amount has decreased to 12.35 euros, which means a decrease in value of over 85%. Moreover, at the moment there is no indication that things will get better, and the last hope for the studio seems to be Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.
Tom Henderson, founder of Insider Gaming, ventured to summarize the current state of Ubisoft, and his conclusions will be presented in this news.
Tencent's acquisition of Ubisoft
In October, it was suddenly reported that Tencent was allegedly planning to acquire Ubisoft and make it a private company. In the end, that didn't happen, and Henderson points to the Guillemot brothers' insistence on retaining control as the reason, which Tencent likely didn't want to accept.
In his opinion, the suspended negotiations are a strategy that both sides are playing. Tencent will continue to buy shares, slowly increasing its stake, and the Guillemot brothers will wait until February when Assassin's Creed: Shadows will be released.
Assassin's Creed: Shadows may be Ubisoft's last chance.
If the game manages to achieve success, the negotiating power of the Guillemot brothers will increase, giving them more opportunities when talks resume. On the other hand, if the game turns out to be a flop, Tencent will be able to increase its shares at a much lower cost.
Henderson believes that the Guillemot brothers will be better off, as according to various sources, the number of pre-orders for AC: Shadows before the delay was quite high, although not as high as in the case of AC: Valhalla.
Poor management
Next, the journalist commented on the poor management, which has reportedly been present in the company for many years. It comes down to prioritizing friendships and family within the management team, where mutual back-scratching occurs, disregarding the thousands of frustrated developers.
Henderson mentioned many projects that struggled with significant problems for this reason, giving examples such as Skull and Bones, Beyond Good & Evil 2, and XDefiant. However, there are also smaller titles, like Project U, announced in 2022, which recently had to return to the design phase after five years of development.
Among others, Beyond Good & Evil 2 has suffered due to poor management.
We know that in September an investigation was launched at Ubisoft to uncover operational problems, but as Henderson reports, none of the people he spoke to believe that it will lead to any changes. Both former and current Ubisoft employees believe that Yves Guillemot would rather go down with the company than give up his position.
Interestingly, yearly surveys conducted within Ubisoft enable employees - somewhat anonymously - to give feedback to the company. It turns out that some of the studies have a very low level of trust in it, amounting to only 15-20%.
Future of the French company
The recently started year 2025 is therefore shaping up to be a breakthrough for the French company. According to Henderson, a lot will depend on AC: Shadows and how Ubisoft intends to rebuild trust among players to avoid privatization.
Besides the previously mentioned game, the company is working on several others, set to be released by the end of 2026, which could prove to be successful titles. It's enough to mention Splinter Cell Remake, Far Cry 7, AC: Black Flag Remake, AC: Hexe, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake or even the recently resurrected from the dead Rayman.
On the other hand, the journalist points out that the company is constantly pumping large amounts of money into projects that are clearly doomed to fail. In this place, he mentioned Project U, Project Scout (battle royale inspired by Apex Legends), Project Maverick (extraction shooter), or games focusing on NFT.
So it's hard to say what the future will bring, but Ubisoft is undoubtedly in a very uninteresting situation right now. Henderson tried to summarize it with these words:
Ubisoft is undoubtedly at a crossroads. However it goes, change has to happen at the top for it to succeed.
