MrTroubleMaker
Gold Member
no 
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Reuters: Vivendi takeover of Ubisoft to take place this year
- Thread starter koutoru
- Start date
Yep. So I doubt it will change much.
Spyder_Monkey
Banned
Maple-Tech
Banned
Do we know what percentage Ubi owns itself? Have they attempted to buy any shares back?
They do not have the money. If they did they would have.
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
😍
Triggerhappytel
Member
Because that's the first thing to do on how to cut costs?!
I can see Vivendi getting rid of the Guillemots, scrapping projects that aren't AAA guaranteed money-makers and closing a lot of the smaller studios. This ain't going to end well for Ubisoft.
WaterAstro
Member
Ubisoft becomes as good as Blizzard was when Blizzard was owned by Vivendi.
bigboss370
Member
fuck. that.
Green Ninja
Banned
they used to be
Microtransactions everywhere, games as service, dropping single player content
Exactly. Business as usual.
What The Forest Taught Me
Member
I really want a Child of Light sequel.
What The Forest Taught Me
Member
Who's that in your avatar? I feel like I've seen them somewhere, but my memory fails me.
Read this thread. Gamers don't respect or value that side of these companies anyway. So fuck it. All of these idiots going "Nothing will change" or "Good!" will be the first to cry and complain when everything except derivative yearly Assassins Creed games start coming out. But right now? They don't give a shit and will welcome the change without even looking into Vivendis poisonous history.
Shit really makes me sick man.
You have that the wrong way around. The major merger with Act/Blizz and Vivendi happened in 2007 (WoW launched in 2004). Blizzard was already great before Vivendi became the major shareholder. Look at Blizzards history from 2008-2013 compared to when they finally got rid of Vivendi and tell me if anything jumps out at you.
Possumowner
Member
Oh well Ubi had a good run.Sad news...unless Vivendi surprise us...they wont
You might not like ubisoft but I feel that they at least try to put out some more experimental stuff inbetween their big blockbuster franchises and from what I've heard they are also a pretty good place to work at for their employees compared to other big players in the industry.
It will be really sad to see them go to such a scumbag corporation that is vivendi.
It will be really sad to see them go to such a scumbag corporation that is vivendi.
Vivendi does not own Activision anymore.
Iamcorrupt
Member
Vivendi never "owned" Activision, did they? I thought they just had a double digit % stake that acti just bought back.
Shin-Ra
Junior Member
so they should probably try to finish up development of wild asap?
Wild Sheep Studio / Sony Interactive Entertainment to be exact.
The game's wiki has a partial list of staff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_(video_game)
They had a majority ownership. They kept a smaller double digit share after the first spin-off, and then sold that later as well.
Phatosaurus
Member
Not to mention the chances they've taken with games like For Honor and R6: Siege. Both big budget, ambitious and fresh spins on existing genres.
Iamcorrupt
Member
Ahhh I stand corrected then.
Really seeing a ton of overstatement on how crucial a few smaller titles from Ubisoft are. The influence of a hit-driven corporation couldn't be more in line with Ubisoft of all companies.
Only one I really feel bad for is Yves. Sounds like he really wanted to hold onto the family business.
Only one I really feel bad for is Yves. Sounds like he really wanted to hold onto the family business.
It would be hilarious if Ubisoft transferred their IPs to employees who then decided to make bank and sell them to the highest bidder.
Yup, you assholes waited too long. It's dead.
After what he did with Patrice Désiletsk, can't say I feel bad about him being kicked out.
Barrel Cannon
Member
I know the majority of gaf loves to hate on ubisoft but they've always been one of the most solid and consistent groups in the gaming industry. We do get genuinely great games from them and something experimental like rainbow six sieges final form would never have been greenlit for launch by Vivendi. We would likely have gotten that awful looking Patriots reveal rushed out the door.
UncleSporky
Member
When you know you have most of a year before something like this is happening, what prevents Ubisoft from protecting key assets from the takeover by having people "leave the company as a group to form a new studio" and making a "charitable donation of computer equipment and technology as a show of support for new indie developers?"
And hereby transferring all rights to the Assassin's Creed franchise for a nominal fee?
And hereby transferring all rights to the Assassin's Creed franchise for a nominal fee?
Muffin1611
Banned
Where does the fear come from that Vivendi will suddenly stop Ubisoft from developing any experimental games and introduce microtransactions everywhere?
Like, seriously, is there a legit reason for that? To me it seems like some instant reaction roughly like this: "game company is being acquired by evil bigger company, has to be bad"
If there are valid reasons for that, feel free to educate me on the subject.
And Ubisoft framing themselves as the victims in some evil scheme in the past years was way over the top too. I didn't see THQ Montreal having that sort of PR campaign after Ubisoft bought and closed them.
Like, seriously, is there a legit reason for that? To me it seems like some instant reaction roughly like this: "game company is being acquired by evil bigger company, has to be bad"
If there are valid reasons for that, feel free to educate me on the subject.
And Ubisoft framing themselves as the victims in some evil scheme in the past years was way over the top too. I didn't see THQ Montreal having that sort of PR campaign after Ubisoft bought and closed them.
iNvid02
Member
shareholders
The Horror the horror
Banned
Didn't Modern Warfare 3 and Skylanders all happen under Vivendi's watch?
This might not be such a bad thing.
This might not be such a bad thing.
UncleSporky
Member
They don't have any say in the day-to-day operations of the company, do they? Can't they only question that at shareholder meetings?
Are game companies not allowed to shed franchises without express permission from shareholders?
At they very least I don't think they can prevent groups of key developers who aren't on some sort of contract from leaving. People change jobs all the time.
Corporations make donations all the time. They also throw out "outdated" equipment all the time, and sometimes have their dumpsters raided. And there are plenty of stories of developers losing important hard drives of data with no other backups.
bitbydeath
Member
I hope Vivendi expand their portfolio, Ubi has gone massively downhill since Assassins Creed 1 IMO so I welcome the change.
South Park and R6 Siege are fantastic but they could be so much more.
South Park and R6 Siege are fantastic but they could be so much more.
Could SE potentially buy Ubisoft? I'm not really sure they would want to since Eidos has been hit and miss for them but the only other companies I could see making that purchase would be Tencent or Netmarble.
Come to think of it I don't know that Netmarble has any revenue coming in from the console space so it could be an attractive option for them.
Judging by their past, this is not what Vivendi is interested in doing. Ubisoft will essentially become what everyone jokes about them being because they choose to ignore all of the smaller interesting and creative titles that Ubi supports.
It will be Assassins Creed, Far Cry and maybe Watch Dogs only moving forward.
Come to think of it I don't know that Netmarble has any revenue coming in from the console space so it could be an attractive option for them.
Judging by their past, this is not what Vivendi is interested in doing. Ubisoft will essentially become what everyone jokes about them being because they choose to ignore all of the smaller interesting and creative titles that Ubi supports.
It will be Assassins Creed, Far Cry and maybe Watch Dogs only moving forward.
Flying Toaster
Member
The problem is they won't. They are a content provider they will churn shit out.
But blizzard was owned by vivendi, from like late 90's until 2013?.
So I'm not exactly sure what should be jumping out at us?
grosvenor_92
Member
If there was ever a time for the government to step in and somehow prevent this from happening the time is now
CountAntonius
Member
Would this get rid of Uplay?
Spieler Eins
Member
RIP again BG&E.