EspadaGrim said:
shikamaru317 said:
Yeah, it is sad to see. 7 unannounced games cancelled in 6 months (4 in July, 3 in January). Skull & Bones delayed yet again (though this time only from March to Q2). They claim they are cancelling these 7 unannounced games to focus on their core series and make them larger sources of revenue (presumably those Core series would be Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Just Dance, Tom Clancy, and maybe Watch Dogs). I hope it works out for them, I'd really hate to see them get acquired by Netease or Tencent, as I don't trust the Chinese at all, and Sony would be even worse as they would make most of their games exclusive to PS. Embracer meanwhile probably wouldn't be allowed to acquire them, as Embracer already has 132 game studios and 17,500 employees, and acquiring Ubisoft would bring them up to 184 studios and nearly 38,000 employees, not sure if the regulators would like the idea of the fate of 38,000 game developers and publishers resting in the hands of a single company. So that doesn't exactly leave anybody good to acquire Ubisoft. Xbox wouldn't be allowed to unless they abandon ABK first. |
Ubisoft would be Amazons most realistic and cheapest choice to seriously get into the gaming space, these big Tech companies need to realize that the only real way to get into the AAA game industry is to buy yourself in at this point. I disagree and believe that Embracer would be allowed to buy Ubisoft if they tried to merge but that would be a stupid move considering that it wouldn't fix any of Ubisoft's or Embracer's current problems and only make them worse. Honestly it looks like Tencent would be the front runners if a acquisition were to happen, also there is zero chance that Sony would even try imo a purchase like this would be over 10 billion easy. |
Wouldn't mind Amazon since they'd likely keep them multiplatform, I don't think Amazon would change anything with Ubisoft's structure though which I think would be a bad thing, Ubisoft is in desperate need of a leadership shakeup. Tencent is definitely the frontrunner though, Yves is doing everything he can to stay in power and seems to have chosen Tencent to allow that, I see Tencent and Yves making more moves together in the future.
I also think Embracer would be allowed to merge with Ubisoft but I can't see it happening. Honestly, Jeff is likely right, Ubisoft for its 20,000 employees never really pulled huge profits in comparison to how massive it was. Its strengths were its workforce who are reportedly jumping from the company now due to toxic work environments and its IPs which its strongest ones are no longer releasing on a consistent basis.
They still do have strong IPs and a large workforce but they're way less consistent now. I think Ubisoft makes a lot more sense for someone who doesn't already have a large publishing operation & strong IPs (I.E. Amazon) than they do for someone who already has a large publishing operation & strong IPs (I.E. Xbox & PlayStation).
Ubisoft would be lucky to go for over $10bn at this rate. They've now dropped to $2.8bn. Their market cap is now less than Sega, Lol. Sony could afford them but I don't see why they would go for them, their net income isn't that impressive for how massive they are and if Sony made their games exclusive it would be a lot worse.
