Editing Ubisoft (section)

=== Investment by Tencent (2018–2022) ===
Since 2018, Ubisoft's studios have continued to focus on some franchises, including ''Assassin's Creed'', ''Tom Clancy's'', ''Far Cry'', and ''Watch Dogs''. As reported by ''[[Bloomberg Businessweek]]'', while Ubisoft as a whole had nearly 16,000 developers by mid-2019, larger than some of its competitors, and producing 5 to 6 major AAA releases each year compared to the 2 or 3 from the others, the net revenue earned per employee was the lowest of the 4 due to generally lower sales of its games.{{Citation needed|date=March 2023}} ''Bloomberg Business'' attributed this partially due to spending trends by video game consumers purchasing fewer games with long playtimes, as most of Ubisoft's major releases tend to be. To counter this, Ubisoft in October 2019 postponed 3 of the 6 titles it had planned in 2019 to 2020 or later, as to help place more effort on improving the quality of the existing and released games.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-30/ubisoft-s-ghost-recon-flop-won-t-be-fixed-by-slew-of-new-games |title=Being Good Enough Isn't Good Enough For Picky Gamers |first=Alex |last=Webb |date=29 October 2019 |access-date=18 January 2020 |website=[[Bloomberg Businessweek]] |archive-date=27 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227055007/https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-30/ubisoft-s-ghost-recon-flop-won-t-be-fixed-by-slew-of-new-games |url-status=live}}</ref> Due to overall weak sales in 2019, Ubisoft stated in January 2020 that it would be reorganizing its editorial board to provide a more comprehensive look at its game portfolio and devise greater variation in its games which Ubisoft's management said had fallen stagnant, too uniform and had contributed to weak sales.<ref name="vgc edit reorg">{{cite web |url=https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ubisoft-revamps-editorial-team/ |title=Exclusive: Ubisoft revamps editorial team to make its games more unique |first=Andy |last=Robinson |date=17 January 2020 |access-date=18 January 2020 |website=[[Video Games Chronicle]] |archive-date=20 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200120135753/https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/ubisoft-revamps-editorial-team/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Stemming from a wave of sexual misconduct accusations of the [[MeToo movement|#MeToo movement]] in June and July 2020, Ubisoft had a number of employees accused of misconduct from both internal and external sources. Between Ubisoft's internal investigation and a study by the newspaper ''[[Libération]]'', employees had been found to have records of sexual misconduct and troubling behaviour, going back up to 10 years, which had been dismissed by the human resources departments. As a result, some Ubisoft staff either quit or were fired, including Hascoët, Maxime Béland, the co-founder of Ubisoft Toronto, and Yannis Mallat, the managing director of Ubisoft's Canadian studios.<ref name="eurogamer liberation">{{cite web |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-07-11-new-report-on-ubisoft-reveals-more-shocking-sexual-harassment-allegations |title=New report on Ubisoft reveals more shocking sexual harassment allegations |first=Wesley |last=Yin-Poole |date=11 July 2020 |access-date=11 July 2020 |website=[[Eurogamer]] |archive-date=11 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200711171134/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-07-11-new-report-on-ubisoft-reveals-more-shocking-sexual-harassment-allegations |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="bloomberg hascoet 2020"/> Yves Guillemot implemented changes in the company to address these issues as it further investigated the extent of the misconduct claims.<ref name="gamespot july222020 changes">{{cite web |url=https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-will-tie-team-leaders-bonuses-to-creating-/1100-6480023/ |title=Ubisoft Will Tie Team Leaders' Bonuses To Creating "Positive" Work Environments |first=Jeremy |last=Winslow |date=22 July 2020 |access-date=22 July 2020 |website=[[GameSpot]] |archive-date=22 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722182545/https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ubisoft-will-tie-team-leaders-bonuses-to-creating-/1100-6480023/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Ubisoft stated in its end of 2020 fiscal year investor call in February 2021 that the company will start to make AAA game releases less of a focus and put more focus on mobile and freemium games following fiscal year 2022. CFO Frederick Duguet stated to investors that "we see that we are progressively, continuously moving from a model that used to be only focused on AAA releases to a model where we have a combination of strong releases from AAA and strong back catalog dynamics, but also complimenting our program of new releases with free-to-play and other premium experiences."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-moving-away-from-reliance-on-aaa-releases |title=Ubisoft Moving Away From Reliance on AAA Releases |first=Rebekah |last=Valentine |date=10 February 2021 |access-date=10 February 2021 |website=[[IGN]] |archive-date=10 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210185128/https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-moving-away-from-reliance-on-aaa-releases |url-status=live}}</ref> Later that year, the company announced it would start branding games developed by its first-party developers as "Ubisoft Originals".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.vg247.com/2021/05/10/ubisoft-originals-first-party-internal-games/ |title=Ubisoft will brand all its first-party titles as Ubisoft Originals from now on |first=Dom |last=Peppiatt |date=10 May 2021 |accessdate=10 May 2021 |website=[[VG247]] |archive-date=10 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510133026/https://www.vg247.com/2021/05/10/ubisoft-originals-first-party-internal-games/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2021, they announced that they would be making an open world ''[[Star Wars]]'' game.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ubisoft is making an open-world Star Wars game |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ubisoft-massive-star-wars-game-142056025.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210113145758/https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ubisoft-massive-star-wars-game-142056025.html |archive-date=13 January 2021 |access-date=14 January 2021 |website=finance.yahoo.com |date=13 January 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref> The deal marked an end to EA's exclusive rights to make ''Star Wars'' titles. In October 2021, Ubisoft participated in a round of financing in [[Animoca Brands]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://venturebeat.com/2021/10/20/animoca-brands-raises-65m-at-2-2b-valuation-from-ubisoft-and-others/ |title=Animoca Brands raises $65M at $2.2B valuation from Ubisoft and others |work=VentureBeat |last=Takahashi |first=Dean |date=20 October 2021 |access-date=26 December 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=15 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211215154650/https://venturebeat.com/2021/10/20/animoca-brands-raises-65m-at-2-2b-valuation-from-ubisoft-and-others/ }}</ref>

In November 2021, Ubisoft announced the development of their first Ubisoft Entertainment Center, created by experience design firm Storyland Studios and Alterface. The first location is set to open in Studios Occitanie Méditerranée by 2025.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blooloop.com/brands-ip/news/storyland-studios-ubisoft-entertainment-center/ | title=Storyland Studios & Alterface present world's first Ubisoft Entertainment Center | publisher=Blooloop | date=18 November 2021}}</ref>

Ubisoft has been increasingly involved in blockchain-based video games since the later 2010s. The company is a co-founder of the [[Blockchain Game Alliance]], which was established in September 2018<ref>{{cite book |last=Elrom |first=Elad |date=2019 |title=The Blockchain Developer. A Practical Guide for Designing, Implementing, Publishing, Testing, and Securing Distributed Blockchain-based Projects |publisher=Apress |doi=10.1007/978-1-4842-4847-8 |isbn=978-1-4842-4846-1 |pages=494|s2cid=198190495 }}</ref><ref name="ValentineIGN">{{cite news |last=Valentine |first=Revekah |date=28 October 2021 |title=Ubisoft Plans to Create its Own Blockchain Games to 'Enable More Play-to-Earn' |url=https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-plans-create-blockchain-games-enable-pay-to-earn |work=[[IGN]] |access-date=12 April 2023 |archive-date=12 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412093934/https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-plans-create-blockchain-games-enable-pay-to-earn |url-status=live }}</ref> and is a consortium of several companies active in the [[blockchain]] space that seeks to explore the potential applications of this technology in the video game industry and publicly promotes the use of blockchain-based content in video games.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gonserkewitz |first1=Phil |display-authors=et al. |date=1 September 2022 |title=Non-fungible tokens: Use cases of NFTs and future research agenda |journal=Risk Governance & Control: Financial Markets & Institutions |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=13 |doi=10.22495/rgcv12i3p1|s2cid=252304860 |doi-access=free }}</ref> According to [[Yves Guillemot]], one of Ubisoft's co-founders, [[cryptocurrency|crypto]]-based content in video games will allow players to actually own digital content within it, while growing the video game industry in the process.<ref name="ValentineIGN"/> Ubisoft furthermore announced its Ubisoft Quartz blockchain program in December 2021, allowing players to buy uniquely identified customization items for games and then sell and trade them based on the [[Tezos]] currency, which Ubisoft claimed was an [[Electrical efficiency|energy efficient]] cryptocurrency. This marked the first "AAA" effort into blockchain games.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://kotaku.com/ubisoft-first-major-pub-to-befoul-own-game-with-nfts-1848176813 | title = Ubisoft First Major Pub To Befoul Own Game With NFTs | first = Reneta | last = Price | date = 7 December 2021 | accessdate = 7 December 2021 | work = [[Kotaku]] | archive-date = 8 December 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20211208061818/https://kotaku.com/ubisoft-first-major-pub-to-befoul-own-game-with-nfts-1848176813 | url-status = live }}</ref> The announcement was heavily criticized by audiences, with the Quartz announcement video attaining a dislike ratio of 96% on YouTube. Ubisoft subsequently unlisted the video from YouTube.<ref>{{Cite web |date=8 December 2021 |title=Ubisoft's NFT Announcement Has Been Intensely Disliked |url=https://kotaku.com/ubisofts-nft-announcement-has-been-intensely-disliked-1848182203 |access-date=23 December 2021 |website=Kotaku |language=en-us |archive-date=17 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220717203929/https://kotaku.com/ubisofts-nft-announcement-has-been-intensely-disliked-1848182203 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=GameCentral |date=8 December 2021 |title=Ubisoft unlist Quartz NFT announcement video as it gets 16K dislikes |url=https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/08/ubisoft-unlist-quartz-nft-announcement-video-as-it-gets-16k-dislikes-15736687/ |access-date=23 December 2021 |website=Metro |language=en |archive-date=23 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223145557/https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/08/ubisoft-unlist-quartz-nft-announcement-video-as-it-gets-16k-dislikes-15736687/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The announcement was also criticized internally by Ubisoft developers.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 December 2021 |title=Ubisoft Developers Confused, Upset Over NFT Plans |url=https://gamerant.com/ubisoft-quartz-nft-plans-developers-upset/ |access-date=23 December 2021 |website=Game Rant |language=en-US |archive-date=23 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223145557/https://gamerant.com/ubisoft-quartz-nft-plans-developers-upset/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Nightingale |first=Ed |date=16 December 2021 |title=French trade union criticises Ubisoft Quartz as "a useless, costly, ecologically mortifying tech" |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-12-16-french-trade-union-calls-ubisoft-nft-scheme-a-useless-costly-ecologically-mortifying-technology |access-date=23 December 2021 |website=Eurogamer |language=en |archive-date=14 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314063855/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-12-16-french-trade-union-calls-ubisoft-nft-scheme-a-useless-costly-ecologically-mortifying-technology |url-status=live }}</ref>

In July 2022, Ubisoft announced that it had cancelled ''Splinter Cell VR'' and ''Ghost Recon Frontline'', along with two other unannounced titles.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 July 2022 |title=Splinter Cell VR and Ghost Recon Frontline cancelled |url=https://www.eurogamer.net/splinter-cell-vr-and-ghost-recon-frontline-cancelled |access-date=3 March 2024 |work=Eurogamer.net |language=en |archive-date=27 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727180350/https://www.eurogamer.net/splinter-cell-vr-and-ghost-recon-frontline-cancelled |url-status=live }}</ref> In September, Tencent invested another {{€|300 million}} into Guillemot Brothers Limited, the company that holds part of the Guillemots' ownership of Ubisoft. This gave Tencent 49.9% ownership in this holding company and increased the Guillemots' share of voting rights within Ubisoft to about 30%. Yves Guillemot said that Tencent would be working closely with Ubisoft, helping to bring their games into China while assisting in paying off Ubisoft's debts and preventing the company from potential buyouts.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tencent-are-working-in-concert-with-ubisofts-founding-family-after-300m-investment | title=Tencent are working in concert with Ubisoft's founding family after €300m investment | website=Rock, Paper, Shotgun | date=7 September 2022 | last1=Wheeler | first1=C. J. | access-date=7 September 2022 | archive-date=7 September 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220907162710/https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/tencent-are-working-in-concert-with-ubisofts-founding-family-after-300m-investment | url-status=live }}</ref>