Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot has confirmed that they are making a bunch of new Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games, together with some unannounced original projects, in a wide-ranging albeit very rehearsed-sounding chinwag with Variety.
In the interview, Guillemot also talked more about Ubisoft’s plan to cut fixed costs by €200 million, as the publishers continue their transformation into a set of “creative houses” grouped around particular games and genres. The transformation has already led to the cancellation of several games and the closure of two studios, and it sounds like there could be more layoffs on the way.
“As we announced, the €200 million in additional cost reductions will include selective restructuring across the company,” Guilemot told the site. “That said, our primary focus for aligning the organization with our long-term goals remains disciplined workforce management, meaning prioritizing voluntary departures while carefully controlling recruitment for replacements and new roles.
“We are also taking a range of measures to optimize the business: reducing certain expenses, adjusting or stopping projects where necessary, improving production processes, and making more effective use of our tools,” he went on.
“Following the post-Covid period, the industry grew very quickly, anticipating sustained demand that didn’t fully materialize. On our part, this led to too many projects and increased complexity. Our priority today is to build a more focused, agile company, with stronger teams that strike the right balance between senior expertise and young talent and who are well positioned to deliver the highest quality games.”
The talk of “disciplined workforce management” might seem a bit risible when you consider that Yves has just appointed his son, Charlie, as co-CEO of Vantage Studios, the creative house that will handle potential “billionaire brands” like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six.
Charlie Guillemot has a few years under his belt in executive positions, but doesn’t strike me as anybody’s first choice for the role of Assassin’s Cry Rainbows tsar. As PCGamer note, he’s otherwise known for running free-to-play specialists Owlient, creators of an infamous Tom Clancy mobile spin-off that shut down a year after launch, and co-founding AI, web3 and blockchain studio Unagi. Charlie Guillemot doesn’t have any public credits on any of Ubisoft’s would-be “billionaire brands”.
Vantage’s other co-CEO, Christophe Derennes, looks like a stronger fit: he’s the former general manager of Ubisoft Montréal, developers of the original Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry 2 and several Rainbow Six games.
Ubisoft – founded by the Guillemot brothers in 1986 – have batted away allegations of nepotism in the past. Asked by Variety to comment on the subject yet again, Guillemot replied that “Ubisoft was created as a family company, and our strong heritage helps us take a long-term view, prioritizing sustainable growth, creative ambition, and continuity over short-term cycles. This perspective guides our decisions and helps us build franchises, teams, and strategies that endure for decades.”
I’m not sure the argument that keeping it in the family helps Ubi avoid short-termism really gels with the previous answer about over-expansion during the Covid boom, or with Ubisoft’s repeated investments in NFTs and other flavours of snakeoil.
“I strongly believe that Christophe Derennes and Charlie are the right leaders as Co-CEOs of Vantage Studios,” Guillemot went on. “They bring complementary strengths and experience that make them well-suited for the role. Their appointment was based on their skills, track record, and fit for the role.”
Ubisoft’s creative houses “will operate like dedicated business units with clear accountability for performance and genuine creative autonomy,” the exec explained. Vantage specifically have funding from Tencent, but according to Guillemot, the latter “respect our operational autonomy and are not involved in our governance or day-to-day management”.
Whether investors trust the Guillemots to run Ubisoft any longer is somewhat in doubt: the company has weathered shareholder revolts over the falling stock price. The Guillemots have also been accused of failing to curb a “boy’s club” workplace culture that has led to several criminal convictions. I get the sense that decentralising the founding fathers and detoxifying the Ubisoft brand is part of the thinking behind positioning the creative houses as autonomous. Or at least, that was my reasoning before the big boss appointed his son to co-run three of Ubisoft’s most successful series.
They’ll have to do more than that to convince the Ubisoft rank-and-file: around 1200 French Ubisoft workers went on strike earlier this month in response to the changes of direction and an associated return-to-office policy.
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