Ubisoft is outwardly facing major difficulties, but is the publishing giant really going out of business?
There are still plenty of major releases coming out from Ubisoft. Games like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have been critical successes while the likes of Star Wars Outlaws have moved millions of units. Beyond that, are numerous high-profile games that fans are excited for, ranging from Beyond Good and Evil 2 to the revival of Splinter Cell.
While the company has been behind some major releases, it’s still in a dire spot. Here’s what happened to Ubisoft, where it’s going now, and whether it’s going out of business.
What happened to Ubisoft?
Ubisoft is facing a major overhaul following a prolonged stock price slide and string of canceled and unsuccessful projects.
2024 has been a particularly rough year for Ubisoft, which comes after a sub-optimal 2022 and 2023. The publisher’s year has been defined by scrapped projects, layoffs, and reportedly falling short of revenue targets. The company has taken several high-profile hits over the last 12 months.
Foremost among them has been the shutdown of XDefiant. The so-called Call of Duty killer sputtered at launch and never recovered, something that led to Ubisoft sunsetting the game and sacking most of its creators. Alongside this was an unfortunate release for Star Wars Outlaws, with the game selling well in its own right but failing to hit the sales expectations Ubisoft had. The company’s biggest release of 2024 was meant to be Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but the game was delayed until 2025 following a string of marketing misfires.
This capped what has been a wild reversal of fortunes for Ubisoft. The company’s stock price has rubberbanded on many occasions, but traded above 30 Euros per share from 2017 to 2022, spiking as high as 102.95 Euros per share. As of January 10, 2025, its stock price is just 12.14 Euros, a decline of more than 90% from its peak. This has fans, gamers, and the industry wondering if Ubisoft might be going out of business.
Is Ubisoft going out of business?
Ubisoft isn’t set to go out of business, but is making major changes to the company that could see it go private or taken over by Tencent.
Tencent isn’t a household name among gamers, but it’s still possibly the most powerful force in the industry. The massive Chinese tech company owns a long list of prominent game publishers including Riot Games and Dying Light creators Techland SA. It also owns sizable chunk of many of the biggest game publishers and developers on the planet, including Epic Games, FromSoftware, Larian Studios, and Remedy Entertainment, to name just a few.
Tencent owns more than 10% of Ubisoft and was reportedly looking to take over the company entirely in 2024, per GamesIndustry.biz. The deal seemingly stalled amid questions over who would control the company following a possible takeover.
In a January 9, 2025 earnings call, Ubisoft executives faced questions from investors. Executives alluded to major changes being in the works and advisors being brought in to help with a restructuring of the company. However, there were no concrete answers about what the future held.
Regardless, big things are happening at Ubisoft; and probably not in a good way. It’s not certain what that will mean for gamers or those in the company. Ubisoft isn’t going out of business but it it’s set for some major internal changes regardless.
