Ubisoft announces new Tencent-backed subsidiary for its Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six franchises

Ubisoft has announced the creation of a new subsidiary which will exclusively manage the development of three of the publisher’s most famous franchises: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. This new entity has received a substantial $1.3 billion USD investment from Chinese tech giant Tencent. This investment has been described as being in order to drive “further increases in quality of narrative solo experiences, expand multiplayer offerings with increased frequency of content release, introduce free-to-play touchpoints, and integrate more social features”.

According to the press release, the new company will include a “dedicated leadership team, supervised by a board of directors” overseeing the unit as it focuses on “nurturing the development” of new projects for the three franchises under its management. All Ubisoft teams working on games in the Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia will be included in this new unit.

Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot has described the formation of this new unit as “a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious“. He continues by stating that Ubisoft is “crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success. With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems.”

The consequential investment by Tencent (giving it a 25% stake in the new unit) will be meaningful for Ubisoft. The France-based publisher has experienced financial struggles in recent years. Like many large gaming companies, it has laid off a significant number of employees, as XDefiant has shut down and other recent releases, such as Star Wars Outlaws and Skull and Bones have failed to meet the studio’s lofty expectations. Notably, this unit excludes many other somewhat less prominent Ubisoft franchises, including Rayman, Watch Dogs and Just Dance. We will have to wait and see what the implications of this new organisational setup will be when the subsidiary is formed later this year.