The scene takes place less than two years ago. This Monday, November 7, 2022, Yves Guillemot took over the Palais d’Iéna in Paris to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the company that he and his four brothers founded: Ubisoft. A French flagship, which has become number three in the world in video games, with successful licenses such as Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, Rabbids or Just Dance. The atmosphere is festive, even if, at the end of the afternoon, Vivendi indicated that it had acquired a stake in the company, with the ambition of taking control. The offensive was short-lived: Vincent Bolloré sold his shares less than four months later.
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Twenty-four months later the atmosphere is completely different. On Monday, October 15, Mr. Guillemot saw a strike picket set up for the second time this year in front of the Montreuil headquarters. Trigger for this mobilization: the announcement of a review of teleworking arrangements in the company which employs 21,000 people worldwide, including around 4,000 in France.
But the crisis goes well beyond that. The game Star Wars Outlaws launched at the end of August, which would have cost Ubisoft between 250 and 300 million dollars (between 229 and 275 million euros), did not meet with the expected success. The studio had to postpone the launch of the new opusAssassin’s Creed beyond the end of year celebrations. The game must be flawless. Ubisoft cannot afford the luxury of another failure.
As if Ubisoft had lost the recipe
None of this was lost on investors. The stock collapsed below 10 euros at the end of September – far from the 100 euros it had briefly exceeded in July 2018. From now on, the hypothesis of an exit from the stock market is no longer excluded nor that of a sale of the company. If, at the beginning of October, the company spoke of “press speculation” regarding his future, she also admitted that she “regularly reviews all its strategic options”. As if Ubisoft had lost the recipe for what has always constituted its success: remaining independent and building strong licenses.
Throughout its history, the French number one has in fact focused above all on its own strengths. He has certainly made some winning acquisitions such as the purchase in 2000 of the Red Storm Entertainment studio, which allowed him to exploit the series of Tom Clancy. In 2001, he also got his hands on the license Prince of Persia. Two strokes of genius. But it is above all with its own creations that Ubisoft has made a name for itself.
In 1995, the studio took advantage of the release of the first PlayStation to launch Raymana game that immediately became a worldwide success. Ubisoft’s talent is therefore to know how to extend the popularity of its own licenses over time thanks to new episodes or variations on other media (series, films).
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