Ubisoft is continuing its efforts to course-correct after several
challenging years. Today, the video game company
announced that it will launch a subsidiary centered around three of its most familiar franchises:
Assassin's Creed,
Far Cry and
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. The as-yet-unnamed subsidiary will fold in the teams working on those three series, including Ubisoft studios in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona and Sofia.
This new business will receive an investment of €1.16 billion (roughly $1.25 billion) from its longstanding partner Tencent, granting the conglomerate a minority ownership stake. Following the transaction, Ubisoft will narrow focus to its other franchises, such as
The Division and
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon.
"Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history," CEO and Co-Founder Yves Guillemot said. "As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious."
Ubisoft has been cutting costs and jobs over the past several months after several of its
new projects flopped. There have been hints for a while that the company's leaders were interested in either finding a buyer or exploring a joint venture with Tencent to help reverse its fortunes. It's encouraging that the recent
Assassin's Creed: Shadows has already reached
3 million players, but Ubisoft will probably need a few more wins to fully stabilize.