The Guillemot family, which founded Ubisoft in 1986, is considering buying back Tencent’s 9.2% stake in the company after its share value fell by 54% this year. 

As first reported by Bloomberg, both camps are speaking with advisors in an effort to stabilize Ubisoft following disappointing returns for recent AAA-budget licensed video games Star Wars Outlaws (one million copies sold, pictured) and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (2.7 million copies sold). The company is only expecting to generate US$2.14 billion in annual net bookings this fiscal year, which would be down from US$2.54 billion in 2023/2024.  

Ubisoft has responded to these news reports with a statement, saying that it regularly reviews all strategic options and will continue to focus on its current gaming strategy of developing open-world adventure games and live-service titles such as Call of Duty competitor XDefiant. The Guillemot family currently controls 20.5% of Ubisoft shares. 

Tencent has been a valuable partner since 2022, when the Chinese conglomerate acquired 49.9% of the Guillemots’ holding company and increased its stake in Ubisoft to 9.2% to fend off takeover bids from private equity firms Blackstone and KKR. Tencent also wholly owns League of Legends developer Riot Games and has a 35% stake in Epic Games.