Ubisoft forms new subsidiary with Tencent focused on three franchises

Today, Ubisoft announced a major change to its organization structure in a press release. A new “dedicated subsidiary” has been created which will focus on the three most successful Ubisoft franchises: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. Video game giant Tencent will also be taking a minority stake in this new subsidiary, roughly 25% or $1.25 billion USD. This announcement arrives less than two weeks after the launch of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, which has received solid reviews and sold well, despite recent troubles at Ubisoft and internet backlash.

Ubisoft forms a new subsidiary with three top franchises, with Tencent as minority investor

Anyone that has been following the video game industry over the last few years likely has heard about Ubisoft’s recent struggles. Over the last year and a half, we have seen Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora underperform, followed by an underperforming Star Wars: Outlaws later that same year. Just in December, Ubisoft closed the studio that made the live service FPS XDefiant and announced they would be shutting down the game’s servers. Just two months ago, Ubisoft laid off 185 employees and shut down another studio. For a long time, it has felt that many of the company’s hopes were riding on Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, the highly anticipated new entry in the franchise.

While Assassin’s Creed: Shadows has been a notable success for Ubisoft, it likely never would have been able to reach a level of success where it saved the company from having to make these kinds of decisions. Rumors of Tencent acquiring Ubisoft were heard as recently as last October. The success of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows likely helped bolster Ubisoft’s bargaining power, but that’s about it.

In the press release, Ubisoft described this move as “accelerating its transformation by taking an important step in rapidly evolving its operating model…” They went on to say: “This new subsidiary will focus on building game ecosystems designed to become truly evergreen and multi-platform…” The subsidiary will “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.” With the recent announcement of the major update, Rainbow Six Siege X, it’s easy to imagine Ubisoft plans to continue to support the live service title that has continued to remain evergreen for them. Notably, this update will also make the classic tactical shooter free-to-play for the first time.

As for the Ubisoft teams and franchises left behind in the creation of this subsidiary, we will have to wait to see what happens next. This includes such video game franchises as The Division and Ghost Recon. Hopefully this does not mean we will see more layoffs or studio closures in the future, but with how the industry has been lately, it’s hard to be optimistic.

Assassin's Creed: Shadows

March 20, 2025

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• Ubisoft
• gaming industry
• Tencent
• Assassin's Creed (franchise)