You canfind plenty of games doing something new. You just won't find it in the AAA space.

Shadows was always going to perform well. It's like CoD in that fans enjoy the gameplay and just want more, with a slight plus or minus for the setting. In this case, feudal Japan is a definite plus.

What I wonder about are the gameplay splits between the stealth character and the warrior character. It's fairly obvious that they wanted to bring in a wider audience but did they succeed? Will this be a one-off or have they put themselves in a situation where they need to create paths for two different character types in future releases? That will mean longer development windows as a downside.

Exactly, AAA games usually stick to the same formula as the previous game because they want to play it safe.  At best they have some minor tweaks each game like the shooting mechanics in NBA 2K games.

AC Shadows achieves the highest concurrent players on steam in the franchise.

https://www.reddit.com/r/assassinscreed/comments/1ji08gu/ac_shadows_achieves_the_highest_concurrent/

Controversy on the Internet doesn't seem to have much impact on reality.

Dumb meme, not only because this negotiation would have been in the works weeks, if not months, before AC Shadows even released and had nothing to do with AC Shadows success or lack of (and it has clearly been a success) but also because Yves has not sold the company to Tencent, Lol. Tencent owns 25% of this new subsidiary, 9.99% of Ubisoft Core and 49.9% of Guillemot Brothers with only 17.3% voting rights in the latter.

Ubisoft owns the other 75% of this new subsidiary and Tencent's 25% doesn't even come with any control aside from customary minority protection veto rights. The new subsidiary would remain exclusively controlled and consolidated by Ubisoft. Tencent is also not allowed to increase their stake in Ubisoft Core beyond 9.99% until 2030 due to prior agreements. Guillemot Family owns 15% of Ubisoft Core and 50.1% of Guillemot Brothers thus they're still in control. Guillemot Family own higher shares and higher voting rights than Tencent.

"With this set-up, the Guillemot siblings thus bring fresh money thanks to this structure - whose valuation is much greater than the group's market capitalization - and strengthens its control over its major assets."

Guillemot Family has "won" for now, beside, Tencent isn't a company that really cares about managing/running things anyway, they just invest and sit back and wait for the money to flow in, they have major investments in dozens of Western companies and are completely hands off for the most part, so for someone like Guillemot who is desperate to cling onto power, they're really the best option.

Somehow Guillemot created a subsidiary with a higher valuation than core Ubisoft...Got 1.1bn Euros invested into it for a 25% stake and maintained control over it and Ubisoft. His talent for keeping his grubby hands on Ubisoft is impressive (and annoying). And yes, layoffs are almost certainly coming and I can't wait for people to stupidly point to them and say "See, AC Shadows failed!" without a shred of thought, Lol.

Uslop should just sell off to someone and get it over with. Hey imagine if Tencent owned them, an actual AC set in Asia. Would be legit cool.

I know it is a meme (6 billion people and all) but can't get why some would say Ubisoft was doing fine.  Anyway in the end this is the best for gamers. Probably lay of a ton of people in the west and open studios in the east possible making better games.

Who was saying Ubisoft was doing fine? AC Shadows being a success =/= Ubisoft doing fine, Lol.

I've been saying all along that even if AC Shadows was the biggest success ever, Ubisoft is going to make major structural changes and have mass layoffs, for a variety of factors, it has been obviously coming for a while, it's just annoying that the rage-baiting grifters will clearly use that to stupidly say that AC Shadows has been a failure (it objectively, has not, Lol).

But nah, I don't agree that laying off thousands is best for gamers or the industry which is struggling right now in both the indie and AAA space, I don't think Yves remaining is a good thing, I don't think Ubisoft killing off all their A-AA IP and Teams is good which is clearly the direction this is heading in and the West vs East shit is just stupid and annoying, Lol. AC Shadows is great, that is the common opinion too.

But I also don't see how Ubisoft laying off thousands/shutting down teams will result in studios opening in the East? Ubisoft isn't moving to the East. This new subsidiary straight up takes the Assassin Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six teams into it, Lol. It's going to be the smaller teams remaining inside of Ubisoft that get the cut and Ubisoft will become an AC/FC/R6 factory because that's clearly where both Ubisoft and Tencent believe the value is and the only thing they care about.

And it depends on what "East" you're talking about, NetEase for example as been gutting their Japanese studios and refusing to give them anymore funding, essentially sending their games out to die, they shut down a studio on the day of release of one of their game. These Chinese mega corps aren't your saviour, they can and often are just as shitty as the Western mega corps, Lol.

I'll also add that alongside Tencent not legally being allowed to increase their stake in Ubisoft (Core) beyond 9.99% until 2030. They also cannot change their stake in Ubisoft (Sub) until 2030. Unless Ubisoft no longer owns a majority of the new subsidiary voting rights and share capital. But in addition to that, Ubisoft "may not" cease to hold a majority of the new subsidiaries voting rights and share capital for a 2 year period. Ubisoft post transaction will own 75% of Ubisoft Sub with full control over it.

Other benefits include: Right of first refusal to the benefit of Ubisoft, a right of first offer to the benefit of Tencent, tag-along right to the benefit of Tencent and drag-along right to the benefit of Ubisoft. Call option to the benefit of Ubisoft and put option to the benefit of Tencent in the event of a change of control of Ubisoft approved by its Board of Directors.

In essence, Tencent is locked into a minority ownership of both Ubisoft Core and Ubisoft Sub for the next 5 years. Inside of Ubisoft Core, the Guillemot Family remain the largest shareholders at 15% and unless someone other than Tencent attempts a hostile takeover it will likely remain that way for the foreseeable, especially as Tencent has just given them a 1.1bn injection and AC Shadows is selling well, now if they can sort their pipeline out for the next 5 years is another question. 

Ubisoft Sub (which consists of just AC/FC/R6) is valued even higher than Ubisoft Core was before this change (when it included AC/FC/R6). Which goes to show where Yves and Tencent believe the actual value is, and makes me worried about any studio/developer inside of Ubisoft Core and I think we will see layoffs, closures, IP sell offs there, especially as AC/FC/R6 teams have been moved over to Ubisoft Sub to protect them.

Yves has basically given himself a safety net for at least the next 5 years and it feels like Tencent has made nothing more than a financial investment into Ubisoft's biggest sellers (AC/FC/R6), one which is valued higher than Ubisoft as a whole, if AC Shadows was a failure then Tencent wouldn't be investing so much for "only" 25% while still allowing Ubisoft "exclusive control" over the new entity.

Ubisoft before this change was valued at around €1.6bn in market cap and that was when it included AC/FC/R6. This new subsidiary which is only AC/FC/R6 is valued at €4bn. Tencent paid €1.16bn for 25% of this subsidiary. Ubisoft to reach this valuation would have had to sell at a 150% premium, Lol. So if AC Shadows "flopped" then why is Tencent paying almost the entire price of Ubisoft's market cap for only 25% of a subsidiary which only includes AC/FC/R6. Clearly Tencent sees AC (along with FC/R6) as the big money makers and doesn't give a fuck about the rest, Lol.

I know a lot of people hate Ubisoft, hate Yves, but Yves seems to have "won" again, Lol. At least for 5 years.

Kind of funny to see the East as the saviour too when Tencent (a Chinese company) in effect has basically just said (in business terms) "We only care about Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six, fuck the rest" Lol. Thankfully Tencent keeps hands off with their Western investments, though I honestly believe this is only because they're a Chinese company and they know Western Governments would get twitchy if they started interfering too much in billion dollar western corps but I'm under no illusion that Tencent is some saviour of the gaming industry, stop putting faith in billion dollar corporations, Lol. I don't want Tencent or Yves in control of Ubisoft.