French video game publisher Ubisoft is grappling with declining revenue, a falling stock price and acquisition speculation, as it is banking on the success of “Assassin’s Creed: Shadows” to escape financial troubles.
The game, which launches on Thursday, marks the company’s return to its best-selling franchise after a series of high-profile flops such as “Avatar: Pandora’s Frontier” and “Star Wars Desperados” cast doubt on its strategy of licensing new intellectual property to make games.
Ubisoft’s stock price took a hit last year, falling more than 40%, attracting interest from activist investors. The company’s largest shareholders, the founder Guillemot family, have also been exploring talks with Tencent and other investors on a takeover deal that would allow them to retain control.
Ubisoft declined to comment on speculation about the sale of the company’s intellectual property.
However, the launch of the latest game has been met with criticism on social media, including from Elon Musk over its diverse characters, as backlash against diversity efforts grows in the United States following the election of President Donald Trump.
“The launch of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is an existential moment for Ubisoft,” said Joost Van Dreunen, a lecturer at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
“If it performs really well, it could go a long way toward repairing its financial position.”
After two delays and multiple leaks, the latest entry in the best-selling series takes players to feudal Japan, a favorite setting among gamers. It features two protagonists: Naoe, a covert female assassin, and Yasuke, a heavily armed African warrior inspired by the real-life character of the same name.
Ubisoft has refined the series’ core mechanics of parkour and stealth to enhance the dual-character system. “They’re not trying to reinvent the wheel, but they really want the things they tried in previous games to still work now,” said Jordan Van Andel, who has played the game and whose YouTube channel JorRaptor has more than 1 million subscribers.
Van Andel, whose content has been sponsored by Ubisoft in the past, said the game offers a more polished experience than recent games in the series, but its story is disappointing.
He added that the game would need to attract a player base beyond its core fans to match the financial success of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla is the last major game in the series, launched in 2020, and the first game in the series to earn over $1 billion (approximately Rs. 8,652 crore).
Diversity Dilemma
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter believes the current U.S. political climate could also pose a challenge to gaming, saying Trump “has made anti-DEI possible.”
Since its reveal more than two years ago, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been criticized by groups for its creative choices, including black warriors and female assassins.
“We can say that people who voted for him (Trump) … they’re going to hate the game anyway, but I don’t think they’re going to be that vocal about it,” Pachter said.
North America accounted for more than 53% of Ubisoft’s total video game bookings in fiscal 2024, as many of the company’s franchises, such as Far Cry, have broad appeal to U.S. audiences.
Games with diverse characters have been hugely successful in the past, such as Sony’s “Horizon,” which features a female protagonist and is one of the company’s most successful franchises.
Van Dreunen thinks the controversy could work in Ubisoft’s favor. “I’m convinced that a free press will only make games more fun for a lot of players,” he said.
© Thomson Reuters 2025
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