Ubisoft Forms New Subsidiary for Handling Assassin's Creed and More Popular IPs

Summary

Ubisoft’s new subsidiary, backed by Tencent, will manage some of its key franchises, including Assassin’s Creed.
Financial struggles have prompted Ubisoft to offload IPs due to rising costs and underperforming games.
Tencent’s investment in the new venture aims to secure the long-term success of these franchises.

Ubisoft has spun out a new subsidiary, backed by Chinese gaming giant Tencent, which will oversee a few of its top franchises, including Assassin’s Creed. This change in operations at Ubisoft comes following a period of financial duress, stemming from multiple commercially underwhelming releases.

Despite owning some of the most successful long-running brands in gaming, ranging from Splinter Cell to Prince of Persia, Ubisoft hasn’t had the best of times on the business side of things, partly owing to rising development costs and disappointing returns from major game releases. In particular, the year 2024 was a difficult one for the French publisher, during which its marquee titles, namely Star Wars Outlaws, Skull and Bones, and XDefiant, couldn’t meet their respective sales expectations, leading to tanking shares and a notable decline in revenue. Even though Ubisoft kicked off 2025 on a strong note with the well-received launch of the oft-delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows, it doesn’t seem to have affected the company’s plans to rearrange its portfolio and offload some of its IPs to a spin-off entity.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Has the Perfect Setup for Its Own AC Mirage

Assassin’s Creed Shadows introduces players to a cast of exciting new characters, and one of them feels like a perfect new protagonist.

On March 27, Ubisoft announced the formation of a brand-new subsidiary, which will inherit the licenses for Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six from its parent in exchange for a royalty paid out to the latter. The new venture, valued at €4 billion (USD 4.3 billion), is poised to see Tencent invest €1.16 billion (USD 1.25 billion) for a 25% stake in the subsidiary before the end of 2025. Interestingly, this update comes just a couple of months after reports signaled that a Ubisoft-Tencent arrangement was potentially in the works. Speaking about the move, Ubisoft Co-Founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said that it will contribute towards “strengthening our balance sheet” and creating the “best conditions” for the long-term success of the three franchises that are part of the deal.

Ubisoft’s New Tencent-Backed Subsidiary to Take Over Its Key Franchises

As part of the IP shuffle, the new subsidiary’s leadership would be in control of the future of Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. A wide selection of devs from Ubisoft’s offices in Barcelona, Montreal, Quebec, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, and Sofia would form the workforce of the new company. The Tencent-supported firm would also be responsible for existing games in the aforementioned franchises as well as those that are in development.

Ubisoft’s decision to spin out three of its most popular brands to an autonomous subsidiary is definitely a significant one that could likely change how these IPs are handled going forward. With a trimmed-down portfolio to supervise directly, it would be interesting to see which of its other franchises Ubisoft focuses on next, after having invested a sizable chunk of its resources into Assassin’s Creed throughout the better part of the past two decades.