Ubisoft is seemingly moving ahead with its previously-rumoured plans of spinning off a new venture that would include Ubisoft’s assets. According to a report by Bloomberg, the company has begun looking for investors for this new entity, and some of the IP that the new venture will bring with it from Ubisoft includes Assassin’s Creed.
As part of this move, Ubisoft is reportedly looking to sell a minority stake in this new entity, and has also started contacting potential bidders. This includes Tencent, with whom the company was originally rumoured to be founding this new entity.
Since it is taking Ubisoft’s big IP with it, the new venture is also looking to get a larger valuation from investors. The company itself has simply pointed to its statements from during its last quarterly earnings report, back when it had revealed that it is exploring “transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders.”
For context, this statement was made back in January, when Ubisoft announced that it would be hiring new advisors to look into these options going forward. The team of advisors will be overseen by independent members of Ubisoft’s board of directors.
These rumours of a new venture by Ubisoft might tie in with reports from earlier this month where the company was reportedly in talks with various major gaming companies for sales of some of its IPs. When asked for comment, however, Ubisoft once again reiterated its Q3 earnings report statements.
“As we mentioned during our Q3 sales, the review of various transformational strategic and capitalistic options is ongoing,” said Ubisoft. “The Board has established an ad-hoc independent Committee to oversee this formal and competitive process so as to extract the best value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises for all stakeholders. Ubisoft will inform the market in accordance with applicable regulations if and once a transaction materialises.”
Reports of Ubisoft potentially moving to create a brand new venture that would also own some of Ubisoft’s major IP first came about back in January. At the time, reports indicated that Ubisoft was in talks with Tencent for this move. Neither company has made any new statements regarding the matter, however.
Back in January, Ubisoft had also shut down its Leamington-based studio. Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Stockholm and Ubisoft Reflections were also hit by layoffs around the same time, which ultimately affected around 185 employees of the company from across Europe.
On the gaming side of things, Ubisoft is currently gearing up for the March 20 release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Along with letting us know what kind of PC hardware we would need to run the game, Ubisoft has also announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be supported on the Steam Deck.
For more details about Assassin’s Creed Shadows, here are a few things we hope it learns from Ghost of Tsushima. Also check out our thoughts on its open world design, as well as a TV ad from earlier this month.
