Ubisoft reaches deal with Tencent to create $4.3 billion mini-Ubisoft subsidiary to "spearhead development" on new Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six games

Ubisoft has just announced the creation of a new subsidiary that will handle Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. The new entity has an enterprise value of €4 billion (around $4.3 billion USD), with Tencent set to invest €1.16bn, giving it a roughly 25% minority stake in the business.

"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," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot says in a press release, "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."

The new subsidiary will "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-catalog and any new games currently under development or to be developed." This subsidiary will get a "worldwide, exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual" license for the three IPs, for which it will return royalties to its parent company. The transaction is expected to be finalized by the end of the year.

Tencent already had a 10% stake in Ubisoft proper prior to its investment in this new entity. The company says the new subsidiary will "remain exclusively controlled and consolidated by Ubisoft."

Rumors of this move started circulating earlier in the month, following speculation around some other type of buyout going back to 2024. Ubisoft didn't directly comment on those reports, confirming only that it was "exploring different options" for its financial future.

Those rumors came after a string of high-profile disappointments in 2024, from Skull & Bones' final escape out of its decade-long development hell to the launch and shutdown of XDefiant and "softer than expected" sales for Star Wars Outlaws. Factors like these led to repeated "polish" delays for Assassin's Creed Shadows, which launched last week to near-record success for the venerable franchise.

Getting Assassin's Creed Shadows on PS5 and Xbox Series X was all about adding "dynamism" to the open world, but the devs seem most proud about the trees.