Europe's largest game company, Ubisoft, experiencing management difficulties, has established a dedicated subsidiary to manage its representative intellectual properties (IPs) such as "Assassin's Creed," "Far Cry," and "Rainbow Six," and has decided to transfer more than 25% of the company's equity to China's Tencent. Through this agreement, Ubisoft aims to attract a cash investment of 1.836 trillion won and improve its financial structure.
Ubisoft officially announced on the 27th (local time) that it has established a new subsidiary to manage three core IPs and has secured an investment of €1.16 billion from Tencent. This subsidiary will hold exclusive licenses for the respective IPs, with Tencent acquiring approximately 25% equity in the company.
This transaction is expected to be completed within the year, pending approval from various regulatory authorities. Ubisoft will retain a majority of the subsidiary's equity for the next two years, and Tencent's acquired equity cannot be sold for five years until Ubisoft loses majority voting rights. However, analyses suggest that in the long term, if Tencent increases its equity through options such as put options, it could potentially secure substantial control over Ubisoft's core IPs.
Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft's chief executive officer, noted, "This decision is a crucial turning point in strengthening our financial structure while fostering long-term growth for our flagship franchises," adding that the company will provide experiences that exceed player expectations through a more agile and focused organizational structure.
Ubisoft has struggled in recent years with poor sales of new releases and deteriorating performance. The games launched last year, such as "Skull and Bones" and "Star Wars: Outlaws," have failed to meet expectations in terms of gameplay, leading to large-scale restructuring and the withdrawal from its Korean branch.
In 2022, Tencent invested about €300 million (approximately 410 billion won) in Ubisoft, acquiring a 10% equity stake in Ubisoft and a 49.9% equity stake in Guillemot Brothers, a holding company run by the founding family.