Ubisoft has announced that they are splitting up... sort of

Ubisoft have announced that they are splitting up, sort of. The company has received a large injection of cash and as such they are starting up subsidiary who will take control of Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.

The quickest way to understand it is Ubisoft is Qantas and this new group is Jetstar, same big company, but operating on their own. Or if you want to put it in video game company terms, Ubisoft is Electronic Arts and this new group is EA Sports.

The new subsidiary would include the teams developing the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry franchises based in Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia as well as the back-catalogue and any new games currently under development or to be developed. What is funny is this group is licencing the games, with Ubisoft getting a royalty cut from the profits.

“Today Ubisoft is opening a new chapter in its history. As we accelerate the company’s transformation, this is a foundational step in changing Ubisoft’s operating model that will enable us to be both agile and ambitious. We are focused on building strong game ecosystems designed to become evergreen, growing high-performing brands and creating new IPs powered by cutting-edge and emerging technologies.

With the creation of a dedicated subsidiary that will spearhead development for three of our largest franchises and the onboarding of Tencent as a minority investor, we are crystalizing the value of our assets, strengthening our balance sheet, and creating the best conditions for these franchises’ long-term growth and success. With its dedicated and autonomous leadership team, it will focus on transforming these three brands into unique ecosystems.

We are committed to building a sharper, more focused organization-one where talented teams will take our brands to the next level, accelerate the growth of emerging franchises, and lead innovation in next-generation technologies and services, all with the goal of delivering enriching, memorable games that exceed players’ expectations, and create superior value for our shareholders and other stakeholders.”

— Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

So what does this mean for gamers? Honestly its unknown, With three major IP now stepping out to do their own thing, it could mean Ubisoft will start to create more games from their other series, they have a lot of them. The studio has not had a lot of major successes over the recent years, so this split, for lack of a better term could give teams that have been shackled to assisting with those series, a chance to create their own work.

Given that the split is going to take a while to complete, we are not likely to see things happen quickly, but this could be good for the company as a whole.