Ubi seems open to buyout
- Thread starter chris1515
- Start date
cheapchips
Veteran
Yves and Bobby have obvious been chatting on their Whatsapp group.
Their latest quarter has PC tied with playstation (ps4+ps4 pro+ps5) and as much as all xbox skus + switch combined. Good stuff, considering how they were 10 years ago
Impressive for a singular platform.
$$$ I imagine. It means someone gets very rich. Like Bill Simmons made a podcast network called the Ringer. They sold to Spotify for $200 million, he gets rich! Well he was already rich.
I dont think MS can buy anymore with antitrust eyes on them after Activision, so who does that leave? Sony?
I still feel like MS kicked all this off buying Bethesda and I still feel like it's misguided and artificial. I dont even think Sony really wanted to say, buy Bungie. They just felt artificial pressure to do something.
Ok people who know the industry better than me, who besides Sony/MS could buy Ubi? EA?
Also there were Ubi acquisition rumors for many many years I recall. Vivendi kept trying to buy them.
Ubisoft fiscal reports are always extremely interesting to me because they are the only major western 3rd party that breaks sales down by platform and region. That's gold info to me, but noone seems to care too much.
Q3 would be the Oct-Dec quarter for Ubi so the heaviest sales in there.
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I really dont think they would even attempt that under anti-trust scrutiny. My assumption is they will lay low for a few years and pray the Activision sale even passes, (let alone do anything to invite even further scrutiny) which apparently can take years to complete itself.
I would be shocked if we hear MS attempting to buy Ubi.
ChuckeRearmed
Regular
What?
Eh, can't blame 'em. "Make hay when the sun is shining" and all that. 
If you mean the years, it's reported the Activision sale would not be complete until fiscal 2023
Microsofts Fiscal Year 2023 is from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. They're estimating the closure anywhere in that range. The Zenimax deal took 5 months 2 weeks and 2 days to close.
Harvesting for the big cash by the owners.
I thought EA did it too
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Yes and no. AAA game development is really expensive now. Each new console generation leads to a relatively massive increase in the development costs for AAA game development. Coronavirus lockdowns in many countries exacerbates this situation. We see many businesses just going bankrupt or closing due to the lockdowns. While software development is possible via work from home, it increases the cost and complexity of any project so they aren't immune to the negative effects of lockdown. Combine that with skyrocketing inflation (at least in the US due to policies enacted in the past year) and it is very very difficult for AAA game development houses at the moment.
We've already seen a growing trend since the PS3/X360 generation of publishers being less likely to approve new IP (too risky) combined with fewer AAA titles released each year (time and money cost) to help alleviate this. Consumer buying habits transitioning to digital versus physical helps as well, but it doesn't really offset the increased costs associated with AAA games.
That means that it's becoming increasingly risky to develop AAA games. If a large budget AAA game seriously underperforms in sales (like say BF 2042), that's going to have some unsettling ramifications for any developer or publisher.
Faced with all of that, it's understandable that there's an increasing trend of developers/publishers seeking to sell their business if they can get a good deal either to cash out or in hopes that they find themselves in a more stable financial situation (for example, Microsoft's deep pocketbooks). That doesn't mean that making AAA games for those developers suddenly became less costly or less risky, but if they are purchased by someone, it's now no longer entirely their problem. Now the purchasing company has to deal with most of the headaches associated with making those financial decisions.
Regards,
SB
I wish they bought all non sports related parts of EA over ubi or activision just for the chance to get some of my favorite ips back from the dead.
I'd wager right after the holiday
I don't think you will see anything approaching the size of the Acitivison deal from Microsoft for awhile but they will continue to buy smaller and medium sized developers. They need to produce enough content for game pass
ChuckeRearmed
Regular
Depends on scale. I mean every other publisher is much smaller than ATVI. ATVI was literally the biggest.
@eastmen I do curious about that 20b deal you mentioned before. Now that 1b is Sumo, I am curious about 7b and 8b you mentioned.
While it's legit to have doubts and fears about a Microsoft acquisition, I really hope that it's Microsoft and not Sony.
If for some companies the unofficial maxim is "Don't be evil", for Sony it's "BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!".
Amazon is possible too but would be another waste of potential.
Tencent maybe.
EA doesn't look any healthier than Ubisoft, and for sure more aggressive.
This generation is so bland that the more interesting stuff is the acquisition's bureaucracy.
If for some companies the unofficial maxim is "Don't be evil", for Sony it's "BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!".
Amazon is possible too but would be another waste of potential.
Tencent maybe.
EA doesn't look any healthier than Ubisoft, and for sure more aggressive.
This generation is so bland that the more interesting stuff is the acquisition's bureaucracy.
