Tencent aims to become the largest single shareholder in Ubisoft - Totillo
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Great, now Jimbo can't make this mistake.
Its a win because itd be a disaster for sony to go afer ubisoft. With that said i was hoping that ubisoft wouldve been microsofts next target if ms is still going after publsihers. Ubisoft is a shell of its former self and its franchises seem stale with no vision going forward, perfect match for xbox game studios if you ask me.
Is this good or bad? Does it protect them from a full buyout for the next several years? I think Tencent owned some shares of Activision and MS were still able to buy them so it's not guaranteed.
So having read the article, (I know a unique concept) it appears Tencent will still not be majority owner, as they will only own 20% of Ubi, whereas they currently own 5%, also this intention to buy the shares doesn't mean it will happen, Guillemot also has to agree to sell to them in the first place. If they do all it will mean is it will be more difficult for either MS or Sony to buy them in future.
If MS was able to drag down and take out Bethesda, Activision, Blizzard and Ubisoft I would have to become a fan. It would be great for the game market to get rid of these garbage publishers.
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peter42O
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Whatever keeps Ubisoft alive is fine by me but I would prefer Microsoft to acquire them even though that seems highly unlikely at this point. If anything, I just want Ubisoft+ on Xbox already so I can get their future game releases day one for a $15 monthly rental. Thankfully, since they delayed Avatar, I have plenty of time for this to happen.
With that said, in the past 2 years weve seen 3 publishers (im including this as if tencent bought the whole thing because no one else will now) get bought. Sony needs to get off their hands, and realize they need to snag publishers important to them because nothing is certain right now.
I doubt too much would change. Having "the largest stake" just gets you more seats at the board, but Ubisoft is super diversified.
I don't trust the CCP but they can only do so much when they don't actually own a controlling stake. A lot of what Tencent does is just about money and not politics, their position does help companies grow and become more valuable.
Still sucks, don't get me wrong.. would rather anyone but Tencent own a chunk of anyone, but for instance them having a 49% stake in Epic grants them zero actual power over them. Just gives them a reason to help Epic w/ publishing stuff so Epic becomes more valuable, and now their 49% stake is worth more.
I don't think Tencent has actually done anything "bad" yet in gaming.
I don't trust the CCP but they can only do so much when they don't actually own a controlling stake. A lot of what Tencent does is just about money and not politics, their position does help companies grow and become more valuable.
Still sucks, don't get me wrong.. would rather anyone but Tencent own a chunk of anyone, but for instance them having a 49% stake in Epic grants them zero actual power over them. Just gives them a reason to help Epic w/ publishing stuff so Epic becomes more valuable, and now their 49% stake is worth more.
I don't think Tencent has actually done anything "bad" yet in gaming.
This is... sad. I love Ubisoft.
In case it's real (very likely), it shouldn't change anything at Ubisoft independently of if Tencent buys more than half or the company or not.
As far as we know, when Tencent invest in a company or buys it, they never changed who runs it and never told them how to do things or to change anything. They simply invest or buy companies that make money and collect the related dividends from them. They help that companies in things like entering China or offering them any synergies with other Tencent companies to help them make more money, which means Tencent gets more dividends. Tencent -or Chinese in general- prefer to do business by creating win/win situations.
Independently if Tencent becomes the biggest stakeholder, or independently of if they get a majority of the company or not, nothing wil change at Ubisoft. The Guillemot brothers will continue running it (unless they decide to retire or something like that), the strategy and plans of the company will continue being the same and the type of games will continue being the same.
Which is basically what the Guillemot brothers wanted: a friendly partner who would buy a ton of shares but that wouldn't ask Ubi change their plans, and to protect the company from being bought by some asshole like Vivendi who would ask them to change their plans in a dumb and potentially ruin it, or at least make their workers and fans angry with unappealing (for them) projects and plans.
The CCP isn't related to Tencent, in fact they frequently fuck Tencent. As mentioned in the news, the Chinese regulator that approves the releases of new games in China didn't approve any Tencent game since over a year ago.
That caused a (small) Tencent revenue decrease in China, while their revenue in the rest of the world grew. So this kind of investments helps them to deal better with pressures from the government.
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The CCP runs China and no business is truly independent from them.. as you just said "in fact they frequently fuck Tencent" AKA order Tencent to change things.
You never really know what they are going to do fairly on a whim to any company in China.
I agree with other things you said and if you read my post, you are echo'ing some of what my said. Tencent for the most part has just helped companies grow, which is what any company that invests big wants to do strategically. W/o a controlling stake all Tencent has is board votes and can only do some much (if the CCP tells them to do something.)
But.. again.. I digress.. I don't trust the CCP.
No.
They have a governent, regulators (linked to the government) that regulate games and both some companies that are owned by the country/govrenment and some other independent companies like Tencent who are owned/controlled by their shareholders) like Tencent.
There are laws, rules and regulations that private companies (well, everybody) must follow. It's like the western countries, but in their case this thing of having companies not owned by the govrenmnet is relatively new and way less common than in the west.
And well, they are more strict with some things and less strict with other things, and in some things like religion, ideology or morale they have a different point of view.
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doesn't look like sony or xbox or interested. I'm pretty sad honestly, i used to work there in college. I was a development tester on Watch Dogs 2 (lol). My name is in the credits. They were such a big deal in my hometwon (montreal) and they came out guns swinging in the 360 era, bought a whole block in our old neighbourhood, and had bonafide hits in splinter cell and assassins creed. I was a huge fan in the 2000's.
then something just turned after 2010, they made nothing but recycled garbage. even working on watchdogs 2, i saw how everything was recycled. they'd pull foliage models from the far cry guys, pull the movement mecahnics from assassins creed, and so forth. everything they made was lazy, recycled, and low cost and low effort.
they're now one of the studios I hate the most. And the funny part is when I was working on Watch Dogs 2 in montreal, they had Watch Dogs 3 concurently in development in Shanghai. i guess that game got cancelled, lol.
the devs were pissing money too. expensive meals everyday, catering service, free bagels and coffee on fridays, and beer in the fridge on site every friday at 4-5:00pm 'Happy hour'. Don't feel bad for these guys at all.
then something just turned after 2010, they made nothing but recycled garbage. even working on watchdogs 2, i saw how everything was recycled. they'd pull foliage models from the far cry guys, pull the movement mecahnics from assassins creed, and so forth. everything they made was lazy, recycled, and low cost and low effort.
they're now one of the studios I hate the most. And the funny part is when I was working on Watch Dogs 2 in montreal, they had Watch Dogs 3 concurently in development in Shanghai. i guess that game got cancelled, lol.
the devs were pissing money too. expensive meals everyday, catering service, free bagels and coffee on fridays, and beer in the fridge on site every friday at 4-5:00pm 'Happy hour'. Don't feel bad for these guys at all.
The safe bets are a blight on the gaming landscape. But Ubisoft hasn’t been as terrible as Activision or EA. They still produce reasonable diverse games. For Honour, the Snow sports game, The Crew, even the recent downhill bike game.
Where the fault lies is in the overarching bigger than big, open world everything formula.
I also can’t fault asset flipping within a company. A tree is a tree, don’t need to start from scratch each time surely.
And devs pissing money away - frankly the culture you described is something that has sadly been expunged from the workforce to the detriment of having a great place to work.
Where’s the hate coming from?
they just refuse to listen to what fans want. they chase some of the dumbest trends too, just look at this thing:
Who the hell greenlit this? Where is splinter cell? Why the hell did they put monsters and zombies in the last rainbow six? Why is every assassins creed literally indiscernible from another, they always look and play the same. it's all recycled, uninspired, corporate think-tank trash.
There's no identity or soul to anything they do, and I think people are really starting to take notice. they're currently held in the lowest regard i've ever seen, I don't even think they want to be in this business anymore and it shows. I have zero faith in any product that has their name on it moving forward.
and the vulture that is tencent begins to circle over their rotting corpse as we speak
dude's tube-fit nuthuggers give Phil Spencer a run for his money. What on Earth were they thinking with this game?
Bet you it gets cancelled soon, lol.
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