It's impossible to tell but there are precedents in the french cultural landscape that can tell us what a Vivendi take over might look like. I'll repost what I said some time ago :
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Vivendi now owns 25.15% of Ubisoft (nearing 30% hostile takeover point)
- Thread starter LordOfLore
- Start date
It's impossible to tell but there are precedents in the french cultural landscape that can tell us what a Vivendi take over might look like. I'll repost what I said some time ago :
adversarial
Member
Damn, that's terrible.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
If this takeover happens soon then Beyond Good and Evil 2 is pretty much fucked, right?
Hellsing321
Member
Can't say I care too much who is in charge of Ubisoft. I haven't cared for their output in years.
Diprosalic
Banned
Why? What is Vivendi's intention with the brands?
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Making games that make profit is their vision. BG&E2 is a breakeven project which they can't be interested in.
Quadraphonic
Member
GavinUK86
Member
WD2's gameplay loop is very generic. Go here, hack/steal this, leave area. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed a lot of it, it's just not doing anything new.
ACS wasn't a great AC game. They dropped the ball on that series years ago. It took them too many years to stop milking it so I don't think they deserve any particular credit now that they've paused the series.
Far Cry Primal didn't really do anything for me. It just felt like 3/4 without guns. Congrats on a unique setting though. That's a +1.
South Park was a very simple turn based RPG. With Matt and Trey writing it, I'm not sure how that even could've failed. Did it sell well though? I have no idea of numbers.
I've played For Honor for many, many hours already and while it's good, I don't think it has legs. People will drop it quick unless they keep adding maps, modes and fighters to keep it fresh. We will have to wait and see.
I've not played RSS so I don't really have anything to say about it. Seems like people like it?
Sangetsu-II
Member
I wonder if Ubisoft will nuke themselves before the takeover is complete and give Vivendi the ashes.
Just out of curiosity how do you imagine this going down?
Mass_Pincup
Banned
They may not cancel it but they'll most likely restrict the freedom Ancel has currently. He might bail out and focus on WILD as well.
They can't do that even if they wanted to, they're beholden to their shareholders.
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
They're not gonna leave their employees unemployed just to make Vivendi look bad.
Sangetsu-II
Member
I'm not saying they are crazy enough to do it, but it would be a heck of a way to go out.
Diddy Kong
Banned
nice
if the hostile takeover is 100% inevitable, they could sell off their ip's (or just give them away). they could also start a new independent company and transfer most ip's (and employees) to that, but i am not sure if that is legal.
basically: if ubisoft wants to, they can leave an empty shell behind for vivendi (and fuck over all of their employees).
They would have to successfully make the argument in court that this is in the interest of their shareholders, which would be basically impossible.
Honestly their better option is to just sell out to a different publisher the same way that Tecmo sold out to Koei in an effort to avoid Square Enix, as they felt they would be marginalized there.
Of course, that would necessitate them actually finding someone who wants to buy them that isn't Vivendi.
They can't do it. There is nothing they can really do outside of releasing shit products to ruin their brand value which is asinine.
shotgunbob04
Member
I don't care who owns Ubisoft as long as I get to play For Honor for a year or two.
Best post of the day for NeoGAF
they could argue that vivendi would/could kill off the company in the long run which benefits no shareholder. its almost impossible, almost.
but i agree with you: they should sell out to another publisher or merge.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Vivendi ha.s to honor previous contractual agreements
Yikes, this is more than what EA tried to do to Ubisoft years ago.
Vivendi used to own the majority of Activision Blizzard, no? I don't think this hostile takeover as is doomed as you think it might be.
Ubisoft is extremely pissed off at this almost solely on the fact that majority of the Board of Directors consist of the Guillemot family, and a hostile takeover would disrupt their family empire.
Vivendi used to own the majority of Activision Blizzard, no? I don't think this hostile takeover as is doomed as you think it might be.
Ubisoft is extremely pissed off at this almost solely on the fact that majority of the Board of Directors consist of the Guillemot family, and a hostile takeover would disrupt their family empire.
They can argue all they want, they would never get board approval. They might not even control enough seats to do approve a sale to a competitor as Nirolak suggested.
Mass_Pincup
Banned
Vivendi can cancel anything and everything after they own Ubisoft.
Charamiwa made an excellent post earlier showing what we can expect from a Vivendi owned Ubisoft.
More like condolensces
Vivendi is different, has new management.
At which point the game surviving might actually depend on the rumored situation of Nintendo funding it.
No, they can't. There are laws that govern the operations of publicly traded companies to protect shareholders and employees, especially in Europe.
icecold1983
Member
ubisoft wont be missed
mercenar1e
Member
wait until Ubisoft announces the underwhelming sales for Steep. Vivendi will then take ctrl.
DriftingSpirit
Member
You know what? lol
yeah keep going with the hyperbole, years of garbage lol
south park, valiant hearts, rayman, zombiU, splinter cell blacklist, rainbow six siege, watch dogs 2, the division, grow home, might and magic X
so
much
garbage
besides the fact that they are improving a lot, i mean everything you said is straight up BS
yuuup this is why this is clearly not good news, I feel like Ubi did mess up games by being too business focused but it feels like they realised that and are now more willing to take time and more resources to make better games and doing fan favourite projects (like BG&E 2) and new IPs.
Under Vivendi, Ubi will go back to be focused around a couple of money making annual IPs like AC, Rabbids and Just Dance and put them out every year regardless of quality.
Also I've heard that a lot of creative staff at Ubi might jump ship if they're acquired by Vivendi fearing the new management.
I know Ubi did some shitty stuff these past few years but they're getting back on a right track as shown but surprise successes like WD2 and getting acquired by Vivendi will probably cancel that.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Team SLAYER.
Double yikes! Then good on Activision Blizzard for getting out of Vivendi three years ago.
Thankfully I don't have to be the first person in one of these Ubi threads to say this.
Ubisoft does a few anti consumer things I can't support but as an employer I really like them compared to most of the big publishers/studios.
*tips hat*
Peroroncino
Member
Vivendi got burned with activision, maybe they learned their lesson, maybe not, either way I don't care much for current ubisoft [downgrades, microtransactions] and their games, I just hope the devs don't get screwed over in the process, usually in those situations the upper management gets the axe right?
InsaneFandom
Member
Don't understand people saying Ubisoft is already heading in a bad direction & milking everything :/
Sure, you could maybe make that argument for Assassin's Creed (I loved Syndicate personally) & Far Cry but there's so many other games they're producing, some of which would never have been made under the other big publishers.
Of the top of my head I can think of: Rayman Origins / Legends, Child of Light, South Park games, Might & Magic, Grow Home / Up, Watch Dogs, the Tom Clancy's, the Crew, Steep, For Honor, Beyond good & Evil 2
& there's probably more. Even if you personally don't enjoy these games, that doesn't mean they're bad and that variety shouldn't exist.
I dunno how much the inevitable(?) takeover will effect this, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't a shift to focus only on big AAA 'sure-hits'.
Which would kinda suck.
Sure, you could maybe make that argument for Assassin's Creed (I loved Syndicate personally) & Far Cry but there's so many other games they're producing, some of which would never have been made under the other big publishers.
Of the top of my head I can think of: Rayman Origins / Legends, Child of Light, South Park games, Might & Magic, Grow Home / Up, Watch Dogs, the Tom Clancy's, the Crew, Steep, For Honor, Beyond good & Evil 2
& there's probably more. Even if you personally don't enjoy these games, that doesn't mean they're bad and that variety shouldn't exist.
I dunno how much the inevitable(?) takeover will effect this, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't a shift to focus only on big AAA 'sure-hits'.
Which would kinda suck.
Astral Dog
Member
Oh my i swear it said like 20% this morning
This worries me...I'm not the biggest fan of Ubisoft, but they've had some gems.
Best response so far.
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
More like Vivendi got dumped and is dying to be in another controlling relationship. This is them trying to hook up with Ubisoft and put an expensive ring on it so they can show up to Activision and say "Do you miss me?" because they have a hard time moving on.
Projects like that will be the first to be wiped out.
MakeMeFeelAlive
Member
It depends. In the US , there are poison pill strategies companies can put in place to dissuade hostile takeovers. I'm not sure how the laws in France/EU handle them.
Or the founders can buy back a majority of the stock to always have voting control.
I disagree. Ubisoft is doing just fine and they don't need fuckers like Vivendi taking over.