How likely is it that we might finally see another Prince of Persia as a result of this?
I think the chances of that happening are near zero, regardless of Vivendi's involvement or not.
Anyone else get that sinking feeling like Beyond Good and Evil 2 would get cancelled should Vivendi take over? I mean, Ancel tends to praise Ubi a lot, i could see him quitting in protest should a hostile takeover occur, essentially throwing BG&E2 back into uncertainty.
Titles like BG&E2 would unquestionably be cancelled, as it's an expensive passion project which has been in and out of development for several years and unless the stars align it's unlikely to sell more than a couple of million copies.
Wasn't preventing stuff like this probably the reason Activision-Blizzard merged? Hmm.
I think Activision merged with Vivendi back in 2007 (I think?) because Vivendi became the majority shareholder. Then after merging and becoming known as AcitBlizz they were able to buy independence back several years later when Vivendi needed the money for another acquisition.
If Ubi goes under where will I get my open world collectathons?
That's what they'll double-down on. Many IPs will go in the bin and we'll get annualised Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Ass Creed, Tom Clancy, etc.
Ubisoft is already a company known for annualized garbage and AAA shlock, the occasional risky game aside. The new BG&E looks to be generic as hell, and they haven't done anything with UbiArt Framework in years, so from my point of view I somehow doubt that much will change under new direction.
Good. They make boring games. It certainly can't make things worse.
It certainly can make things worse if everything smaller or creative like Child of Light, Valiant Hearts, Rayman, Blood Dragon, ZombiU, Grow Home, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, Steep, Trackmania, etc gets shitcanned, as it most likely would under Vivendi. It's fine to not like them (I don't really either), but it's ignorant to pretend that they're not one of the better publishers both at launching new IP and supporting quirky smaller games.
Maybe leave France? Sounds like that CEO is only interested because it's HQ'd in France. I mean it would cost a lot of money, but if the choice is keep the company, or leave France, than it doesn't seem like much of a choice. It's probably too late now though.
That seems impractical and horrendously expensive for something which may not even work. Plus, they would need to do it within a few months (I'd guess for a company of their size with contracts and tenancies in place that would be basically impossible), and it would need to be enough of a turn-off for Vivendi to then back off - after all, they could always complete the acquisition and then move the head office back to France.
I don't think Nintendo has enough capital to "help" out Ubisoft like some are discussing. Don't think their board would approve of that kind of thing anyway.
If there are any possibilities of someone trying to help out Ubisoft, I could see Microsoft or Sony as potential suitors.
I think Nintendo would have enough money, but as I recall Ubi is about twice the size of Ninty and they wouldn't want to grow the company that much, that fast. Plus, they don't seem especially keen on acquisitions so I doubt the entire idea would particularly appeal.
Sony's got about double in liquid capital (cash, investments) than Nintendo does. The former sports a beefier balance sheet, allowing the corporation to draw more on its credit line for a prime interest rate. Sony has been seeing rising net cash flows, and as of FY16 it sports 15x more than what Nintendo has in its cash flows...AND Nintendo only recently has been having *positive* cash flows.
I probably should have rephrased my original sentence better, haha. Nintendo could probably shell out the money if they wanted to, but I think Sony could shell out more.
I don't think Phil Spencer could get approval for a couple of billion dollars for this kind of buyout, and Sony has worked hard to trim the fat in recent years, so I don't think they would want to add Ubi's 9000 employees to their payroll just after Kaz Hirai has worked so hard to turn the business around and make them profitable.
The other option I guess is one of the big three buying some shares in Ubi in order to allow the Guillemots + Nintendo (for example) to retain above 50% shares to ensure Vivendi cannot get control of the company. And then in exchange Ubi develops like 10 exclusives for that hardware manufacturer! Is that what 'white knighting' is? Again, I don't really see it happening as in theory none of the big three will lose much even if Vivendi take over, but it's more likely than an outright acquisition.
