In the heart of a financial slump for several months, Ubisoft would be thinking about many tracks so as not to close shop. According to Bloomberg and his investigative journalist Jason Schreier, the family Guillemot plans to create a new stations with the Chinese giant tence in order to recover part of its assets, whether some licenses or studios. But China would not be obviously not the only country that could help the French publisher find financial health. Indeed, according to the newspaper ‘Les Echos’ which decided to leak the information, Ubisoft would have made a deal with Saudi Arabia to find funding and even launch the production of an extension to Assassin’s Creed Mirage. An announcement that many media and other environmental analysts have found surprising.
If we believe the information of the Echos, Emmanuel Macron would have made a state visit to Saudi Arabia from December 2 to 4, 2024. Our president did not go there alone, but also invited a whole delegation of chiefs French business (there were about fifty) in the goal “To deepen cooperation in strategic fields that are in particular defense and security, energy transition and connectivity“But also to build economic partnerships with French companies. Also according to the newspaper ‘Les Echos’, Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, was one of these 50 French entrepreneurs and the latter would have been maintained with the Savvy Games group, owned by the PIF, which is none other than the Public investment fund of Saudi Arabia and held by his crown prince Mohammed Ben Salmane. This rapprochement would have allowed To finance the development of an extension of the Assassin’s Creed Mirage game, released in October 2023.
It is all the more surprising since according to Stéphane Boudon, Creative Director on Assassin’s Creed Mirage, had explained that no DLC would be planned for the game, which was already at the base an extension of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, before Ubisoft does not transform it into a full game, by marketing it as a homecoming in terms of gameplay. Will the partnership between Ubisoft and the Savvy Games group lead to something more important than a simple game financing? At a time when Ubisoft is going through an unprecedented crisis, all means are obviously good to find financial support, and as everyone knows, Saudi Arabia has never hidden its desire to win in the video game sector , but also pop culture, especially Japanese. We remember for example the announcement of the Dragon Ball amusement park which is currently under construction, the Goldorak statue which proudly sits in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia and which has become the largest statue life -size never created.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iuf2v1k1lk
At the age of 39, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Ebn Salmanen, never hid his passion by video game, manga and Japanese animated. He was rocked by all this popular culture, since during the 1980s, the Middle East was also bottled to Japanese popular culture. Mohamed ben Salmane, it is also a huge fan of video games and Neogeo, the Rolls Royce console of the 90s that made young Mohamed bin Salmane dream, so much so that the latter bought the SNK company up to 96.18% in February 2022 for the sum of 522 billion won, the equivalent of $ 430 million, via its MISK Foundation. Besides, the acquisition of SNK is only a simple appetizer. Saudi Arabia also announced in September 2022 to want to invest no less than $ 37.8 billion in the video game sector. It is through the Savvy Gaming Group group, owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, that the desire to set up in the video game landscape will be done.
In detail, it is indicated that 18.6 billion will be invested in minority participation in development studios but also video game publishers. We also know that the country has entered the capital of Nintendo recently up to 8.3% after having submitted a file to the Ministry of Finance of Japan, still through the Saudi bottom PIF. Nintendo is not the only video game publisher to be the target of Souadite Arabia, since Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Nexon, Capcom, Koei Tecmo and Take-Two Interactive are also in the viewfinder, knowing that the country has also reinforced its recently position with an augmentaton of capital. From now on, Mohammed Ben Salmane has 5.8% of Electronic Arts (compared to 5.1% a few months ago), but also 6.8% of interactive Take-Two (against 5.3% recently), all by buying 2 million respectively And 3 million shares at the end of 2022. But that’s not all, we also learned that $ 13.3 billion will be devoted to the acquisition of a new leading publisher, probably against their will. Who will be the prestigious video game editor who will be swallowed by the incessant desires of Mohammed Ben Salmane? We will know it sooner or later. In the meantime, Saudi Arabia continues to invest and sponsor young talents in the field of esports, in order to support them in their careers.
In any case, Yves Guillemot is ready to do anything to save his business, even if it means looking for funds from countries that are debated in the West. In all cases, the CEO of Ubisoft already prepares the spirits (and its employees) for great upheavals, with certain coalitions, a possible buyout, since In a press release published in early January, “advice foreground were mandated in order to to study and pursue various transforming strategic and capitalist options in order to extract the best possible value for stakeholders »». Business is business guys.