New Assassin’s Creed games, investment and stock purchase by Tencent – Ubisoft has been busy!
First off, a few weeks ago, there were rumors of a new Assassin’s Creed which revolved around supposedly official images. Turns out it is true. After the rumors floated around, with Ubisoft trying to stamp them out, Ubisoft finally caved and revealed that a new entry into the franchise is titled Assassin’s Creed Mirage. More info is to be revealed September 10th. Rumors, however, put the locale in the Middle East and may be based on the Ali Baba folklore.
Next up is news that Chinese conglomerate, Tencent, has purchased a sizeable stake in a holding company which is owned by the Guillemot brothers (who run Ubisoft) and in-turn holds a large stake in Ubisoft. The deal is a bit complex, but essentially, Tencent has acquired even more of Ubisoft through an indirect path to add to their direct stake in the company. However, due to some of the terms of the sale, Tencent only has 5% voting rights despite owning a huge chunk of the holding company. The ownership will lead to more investment in the form of cash infusions that will allow the team at Ubisoft to possibly restructure their debt and, of course, invest in more games.
The last bit of news is the rumor that two more Assassin’s Creed games will be announced, in addition to a mobile game. One of the locales may be set in feudal Japan. Another rumor points to the possibility of the other game to be set in the latter stages of the Holy Roman Empire. Both are reportedly associated with a large-scale collaboration between Ubisoft Quebec and Ubisoft Montreal called Assassin’s Cred Infinity. Details on what Infinity is have been sparse. The mobile game, however, is rumored to be a project that may have been a cancelled Far-Cry-based game. We can assume that more info will be released during the event on September 10th.
