Ubisoft’s situation remains precarious. Europe’s largest game developer is in trouble – and has to postpone the release of perhaps the last straw once again.
Ubisoft reached a low point in September 2024. After the French company announced that it was postponing the hotly anticipated Assassin’s Creed installment Shadows from November of last year to February 2025, the developer’s share price fell to previously unimagined depths.
The turn of the year is likely to have been accompanied by wishes for recovery in Paris Saint-Mandé, where Ubisoft has its headquarters – but these were put aside more quickly than many a New Year’s resolution in the gym.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows becomes the last straw
Not two weeks into 2025, it’s clear that Assassin’s Creed Shadows won’t be released in February either. Instead, the release is now scheduled for March 20, 2025. The reason for this is Ubisoft’s renewed focus on “gameplay quality” and improved “day-one experiences”. The additional month of development time will be used to incorporate player feedback from the last few weeks and months.
The Assassin’s saga, set in feudal Japan, is thus becoming Ubisoft’s last hope for the current fiscal year. This ends with the first quarter of 2025 and, according to the developer’s own expectations, should bring it into the black – Assassin’s Creed Shadows included. This is an expression of the difficulties Ubisoft has been facing for some time.
Strategic realignment to save 200 million
While it was still unclear in the fall of 2024 how Germany’s second-largest video game employer would deal with the series of failures surrounding Star Wars Outlaws, Skull and Bones or XDefiant, it is now clear that there will be changes. Last week, for example, Ubisoft published a “strategic update” in which, in addition to the postponement of Assassin’s Creed, extensive restructuring was also announced.
However, the group did not specify any concrete measures. The French video game giant wants to save 200 million euros in annual costs in the 2025/26 fiscal year compared to the 2022/23 fiscal period. However, it remains unclear exactly how the “significant cost savings” are to be achieved. It is therefore impossible to say whether – and if so, how – the almost 1,000 Ubisoft employees in Düsseldorf, Mainz and Berlin would be affected.
Sale becomes an option – What is Tencent doing?
At least with regard to further measures, it can be read between the lines that CEO Yves Guillemot and Co. would bring out the big guns if necessary. A possible sale of shares also seems to be an option. The company’s transformation process is being supported by external consultants and monitored by “independent members of the supervisory board” in order to achieve the “best value for stakeholders”.
Such a step could bring the major Chinese investor Tencent on board. The tech company, which already owns LoL and Valorant developer Riot Games, currently holds just under ten percent of Ubisoft – and the trend is likely to be rising.
