Reuters claims Vivendi takeover of Ubisoft is to happen this year

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It looks like things are getting even more bleak for Ubisoft, as Vivendi slowly advances in on a hostile takeover of the company. The London-based financial news source, Reuters, claims that reliable sources have said that Vivendi will be acquiring more video game studios this year, starting with Ubisoft and Havas (the latter of which is an advertising group). There will be a shareholder's meeting next Tuesday, where more details about Vivendi's future plans will be revealed. Although, it appears Vivendi itself isn't without its own problems, as Reuters also discussed that shares for the company have fallen, and market analysts are wary of the lack of transparency with Vivendi. Only time will tell what will happen for sure, and what this means for Ubisoft, but prospects for Yves Guillemot to remain as CEO at Ubi are looking bleak.

:arrow: An overview of the events of the takeover

:arrow: Source
 

Burlsol

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Real question is how this will affect uPlay and similar DRM models that other companies use. If Ubisoft gets pulled apart, uPlay services will likely be discontinued... Which means that virtually every Ubisoft title made in recent memory can no longer be played without needing to crack it. For some titles, due to how it interacts with online saves and content, cracking isn't even an option. While I personally won't be shedding any tears since I've personally been boycotting Ubisoft because of their forced and obtrusive DRM model; it does shine light back on the problems of this model.
 

Hells Malice

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Generally when you purchase something you're either destroying competition, or you want money.
Vivendi used to own Activision/blizzard if memory serves...and they didn't seem to fuck that up given Blizzard is still one of the top names in the industry.

I doubt it really means much for consumers if they take over Ubisoft. Might even be a good thing considering how shit Ubisoft has been getting in recent history.
Though if they somehow make Ubisoft worse then we might actually see tough competition between EA and Ubisoft for worst gaming company 2017
 

jimmyleen

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Real question is how this will affect uPlay and similar DRM models that other companies use. If Ubisoft gets pulled apart, uPlay services will likely be discontinued... Which means that virtually every Ubisoft title made in recent memory can no longer be played without needing to crack it. For some titles, due to how it interacts with online saves and content, cracking isn't even an option. While I personally won't be shedding any tears since I've personally been boycotting Ubisoft because of their forced and obtrusive DRM model; it does shine light back on the problems of this model.

And people say being always online is good for every one, yeah right.
 
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endoverend

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Generally when you purchase something you're either destroying competition, or you want money.
Vivendi used to own Activision/blizzard if memory serves...and they didn't seem to fuck that up given Blizzard is still one of the top names in the industry.

Blizzard bought its independence from Vivendi a few years ago, so they're out of Vivendi's grasp... for now.

I don't know much about economics, but isn't this taking a while for a hostile takeover?

This isn't really an option in American economics, so it's not something people are used to seeing. It usually involves a huge and costly bid and a generous amount of shares owned to sway the remaining stockholders in favor of the bid. Vivendi has been slowly increasing their shares in Ubisoft, from 15% to 18% and now 25%. This is likely to prevent the same over-expansion which almost drove them bankrupt back in 2001.

Havas (the latter of which is an advertising group)​

This part is particularly interesting, as Havas already has history with Vivendi. Havas was initially acquired by Vivendi as part of the Seagram merger (that huge deal including Universal which eventually brought Vivendi almost to the point of bankruptcy in 2001), but its advertising division was eventually sold off. Later, this advertising division bought back the Havas name, but Vivendi wasn't done yet. Bollore, Vivendi's CEO, began to buy tons of stock in Havas after bring Vivendi back from the brink of bankruptcy. He eventually took over Havas and became the CEO there too. So this is just the natural expansion of the Bollore Group. This has the potential to become an absolutely massive French conglomerate.
 

Mark McDonut

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This is the slowest hostile thing i've ever heard happening.

Ubisoft was fun for a while though, their TMNT GBA game is probably one of the best portable beat em ups i've ever played.
 
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VitaType

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Didn't know Vivendi was still around.

Don't forget Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell, too.
The last good Prince of Persia game was The Two Thrones (the end of the Sands of Time series, original release way back in 2005). After that there where only really crude PoP games (and the Assassins Creed games. Guess they don't do PoP games that much anymore because they think it's to close to AC).
The same with Splinter Cell. A great series until Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory, but after that the series got worse and worse.

With the exception of Trials i honestly can't say I really like any of the franchises Ubisoft have anything to do with, even then Trials Fusion was no where near as good as Trials Evolution
Never heard of the Trails series. Thanks for the tip.

The Settlers II 10th Anniversary was amazing, however that was released 10 years ago now...
If you like the building based Settlers (some Settlers also focused on war) you maybe should check out the Anno series as well. I dislike the new ones due to beeing in a futuristic setting, but Anno 1404 was great (the graphics isn't up-to-date anymore but I think it's still good playable) as 1503 was great too (which isn't really pretty anymore, but worth mentioning because it perfected the original supply chain approch before moving more to the Tetris approch)
 
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netovsk

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Blizzard, Activision and Ubisoft all under the same umbrella. It's a bit worrying, competition is good.
 
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Saiyan Lusitano

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The last good Prince of Persia game was The Two Thrones (the end of the Sands of Time series, original release way back in 2005). After that there where only really crude PoP games (and the Assassins Creed games. Guess they don't do PoP games that much anymore because they think it's to close to AC).
The same with Splinter Cell. A great series until Pandora Tomorrow and Chaos Theory, but after that the series got worse and worse.

I really enjoyed PoP2008 and even got the DLC too though I've yet to finish that someday. Chaos Theory is by far the best Splinter Cell of all-time and while Blacklist tried to go back to its roots, without Ironside's voice it's just not the same.

These two franchises deserve a company that takes care of them.
 

Deleted member 408979

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Ubisoft has been dead to me ever since Rayman Legends was first delayed.


Also since they haven't really done anything with rabbids in like 4 years...

Dany why the fuck do you care?! ITS SO IMMATURE!

Well 2 reasons:
10220179-1291208382-760000.jpg

THIS BEAUTY! 'nuff fucking said, its underrated as fucking hell. Definitely one of the best party games for the Wii

61lwgfmgeUL.jpg


Then there's this one. I prefer the other one but this one holds a special place in my heart for ONE reason:

So there was this horse game, a really hard to beat one. You had to bet some carrots and then shake the remote like crazy in order to win. There were 3 rounds. To win you had to get the most carrots by the end. Normally the winner ended up with around 2 carrots. 4 was already overkill.

WE GOT FUCKING MORE THAN 30 FUCKING CARROTS.

AND WHEN WE UPLOADED THE SCORE GUESS WHO GOT THE FUCKING WORLD RECORD

DAS RIGHT US AND THERE WAS LIKE 10 CARROTS BETWEEN SECOND AND US.

the only 2 good rabbid games....Other than that its pretty bland...
 
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Taleweaver

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Real question is how this will affect uPlay and similar DRM models that other companies use. If Ubisoft gets pulled apart, uPlay services will likely be discontinued... Which means that virtually every Ubisoft title made in recent memory can no longer be played without needing to crack it. For some titles, due to how it interacts with online saves and content, cracking isn't even an option.
This, basically. This whole frear about new and popular games no longer receiving future franchise games is pretty moot, if you ask me. Vivendi isn't taking over ubisoft because they want to turn it into a firewood processing plant but because they want to make money. And making games just so happens to be what they're good at. And it's a guess, but I'd say popular and healthy franchises have the least to fear. It's the smaller niches of the companies that I'm worried about. The 'grow homes', the 'child of light's and the 'Valiant hearts'...it's harder to justify pouring money into projects without a guaranteed profit, so I think these are more likely to suffer from a takeover.

...and of course uplay. While the service isn't as popular, not having the service could really have some consequences. I remember buying anno 2070 despite numerous negative reviews over uplay (which somehow was mandatory)...it wouldn't be funny if removing the service removes the possibility to play this game (and similars) to begin with. And if windows for live is an example, I wouldn't rule that out. :unsure:
 

chartube12

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Generally when you purchase something you're either destroying competition, or you want money.
Vivendi used to own Activision/blizzard if memory serves...and they didn't seem to fuck that up given Blizzard is still one of the top names in the industry.

I doubt it really means much for consumers if they take over Ubisoft. Might even be a good thing considering how shit Ubisoft has been getting in recent history.
Though if they somehow make Ubisoft worse then we might actually see tough competition between EA and Ubisoft for worst gaming company 2017

If memory serves me correctly. Blizzard had to pay a dam high price to separate from them. Various problems Blizzard had in the past were due to Vivendi.

When Activision left them, they ended up in legal right issues with several marvel titles they were working on, since Vivendi had the rights.

Vivendi exist to simply bribe and leech money from the companies and teams they buy. They do this using the most dirtiest tactics they can come up with. They are the mob and loan sharks of Video Games

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

...and of course uplay. While the service isn't as popular, not having the service could really have some consequences. I remember buying anno 2070 despite numerous negative reviews over uplay (which somehow was mandatory)...it wouldn't be funny if removing the service removes the possibility to play this game (and similars) to begin with. And if windows for live is an example, I wouldn't rule that out. :unsure:

Most windows for live titles got converted and patch to steam. Although it was a pain in the ass in the beginning to go through the hoops to get your games back
 

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