The crisis at Ubisoft has deepened – and the end result is inevitable

Ubisoft’s boss delivered quite the wordy statement ahead of its surprise investor call this week.

“We have taken decisive steps to reshape Ubisoft to deliver best-in-class player experiences, enhance operational efficiency and maximise value creation. We recently appointed advisors and are actively exploring various strategic and capitalistic options to unlock the full value potential of our assets. We are convinced that there are several potential paths to generate value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises.”

To translate that a bit for those who don’t work in investment or finance… Ubisoft is looking at what it’s doing, it’s going to focus on what’s working (and cut what isn’t) in the aim of being more attractive to those who might want to invest in the company, or buy it outright.

This isn’t actually a new strategy. The company has been doubling down on its core brands for over a year now, which has resulted in cuts across the organization. But the situation has worsened following a disappointing 2024.

Practically everything Ubisoft tried to do last year underperformed. As new IPs, Skull and Bones and XDefiant were always a risk, especially when trying to compete in the seemingly impenetrable live service space, and they certainly didn’t deliver what was needed.

Meanwhile, Star Wars Outlaws was a hugely disappointing launch from a commercial point-of-view. A seemingly decent game, from one of Ubisoft’s most acclaimed studios, based on a major IP and after a successful reveal at Summer Game Fest 2023… it felt like a bankable hit. Yet it missed spectacularly. Across Europe, the game was the 47th best-selling game of the year, and sold less than Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which was released the year before.

That spooked the company when it came to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which, as the firm’s own IP, is a lot more commercially significant. The decision to delay Shadows to respond to fan feedback does feel like capitulating to the anti-woke trolls who have been questioning the historical accuracy in this game about an ancient secret society of assassins. You wouldn’t expect a company like Ubisoft to give much credence to such things. However, after a string of disappointments, it perhaps speaks to fading confidence in its overall creative decisions.

The whole situation is a remarkable fall from grace for a company that, a generation ago, was enjoying a string of open world hits and successfully avoiding a hostile takeover from Vivendi. Yet flagging interest in some of its core titles, rising costs and, of course, a string of company scandals that resulted in crippling high staff turnover, has put the business in a precarious position.

“Across Europe, Star Wars Outlaws was the 47th best-selling game of the year, and sold less than Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, which was released the year before.”

The Ubisoft we are inevitably going to lose after all this is arguably some of the best things about the company. For all the negative headlines, Ubisoft does do some good for the games industry. Internally – and certainly in the years since the scandals – it has invested in worthy initiatives, including developing a neurodiversity group to better support its teams.

And externally, Ubisoft is one of the biggest investors in new and emerging game markets, with studios in Serbia, Bulgaria, India, the Philippines and more. It’s also an early supporter of new tech as one of the first major companies to get behind motion controls, VR, streaming, AI (and yes, yes, blockchain, too).

I am not suggesting these initiatives are entirely altruistic. Being first with new technology can pay dividends if that tech takes off, while those international studios will have received some form of Government support and subsidies. Nevertheless, Ubisoft has historically been braver than its competitors, and its latest statements point to a more cautious approach going forward.

From a game fan’s point-of-view, we should also expect a slightly less interesting line-up from Ubisoft. It’s not the likes of Assassin’s Creed or Rainbow Six: Siege or Far Cry that are under threat. But what about that Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake? Or Beyond Good & Evil 2? Or the new Splinter Cell? Games and franchises that haven’t made significant revenue in a long time (or in the case of Beyond Good & Evil, never has).

For all the criticism Ubisoft faced for its similar-style open world action adventure games, it was also a company that often put out things like a South Park RPG, or a 2D Prince of Persia metroidvania, or an XCOM-like strategy game featuring Mario and the Rabbids. Those are the games that won’t fit a strategy built around ‘operational efficiency’ and maximising ‘value creation’.

Could Ubisoft sell some of its less lucrative franchises? I am sure it will try. But it’ll be tough. The days of companies like Embracer splashing out on dormant IP and franchises are over.

In the end, all of this is going to be necessary. If Ubisoft is to survive, it needs to become a leaner (that means smaller) and more efficient organization, fully focused on its big franchises. I just have to hope that when the dust has settled, that at least some of what made Ubisoft different remains intact.