Assassin's Creed could save Ubisoft from EA's maw

by Justin McElroy on Dec 18th 2007 12:45PM

Apparently the stories that a video game's parents tell it really are true: One game can make a difference!

In an inspiring story that's sure to be adapted into a Disney animated film (featuring the voices of Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and Robin Williams as the side-splitting "Ubi"), the sales of Assassin's Creed (at 2.5 million last week) may have been enough to save Ubisoft from EA's clutches.

Financial Times reports that strong sales of the game has helped Ubisoft increase its value to approximately $4.3 billion, meaning that it may just be too expensive of a pickup for EA at the moment. Of course, with the threat of Activision Blizzard looming, who knows how far EA will go to keep its market share?

[Via Gi.biz]

Read -- Ubisoft's assassin and the creed of creative defense (registration required)

Tags: activision-blizzard, assassins-creed, assassinscreed, ea, Electronic-Arts, ubisoft

Reader Comments (38)

awwww, that is a touching story.

EA or UBI?
Hitler or Stalin?
potato or potata?

Ubi, Stalin, and Potato for me.

You really would compare Ubi with EA? I personally like Ubi and hope they hold out and don't let EA get total control.

You surely meant EA or Activision.

It's nice when developers get rewarded for taking chances...

And then use their new money to make Beyond Good and Evil 2.

Thank god (or other religious figure) that somebody else wants a sequel to one of the most highly underappreciated games of all time from the last gen.

Beyond Good and Evil deserved so much better!! Actually a lot of games from the last gen went by unnoticed and deserve to be brought back around. Indigo Prophecy and Psychonauts for a few examples (and I'm hoping XBL sales will help boost these guys into making more)!

So is this merger gonna be called Eaubisoft then?

Would that be ewwwwbifosft?

Too bad it couldn't save me from boredom

Too bad, you are only one out of the 2.5 million

Make it two!

@ Noshino

Yea, I'm sure that out of 2.5 million ppl playing it I'm the single only person to ever think it. My god did you play the game all the way through. from hour 3 - 10 its the same exact thing over and over again. It's very monotonous and boring to me

This is the single best gaming-related news story I've read in a long time.

Keep fighting the good fight Ubi. We need someone out there to compete with EA, and the monstrosity ActiBlizzard is becoming (see Rock Band PS3 guitar fiasco).

You know, before we start clapping about how Ubisoft is all sunshine and puppies... look at their Wii and DS efforts. I mean, granted Ubi puts out some fairly unique titles (and thankfully someone FINALLY used the genetic memory theory in a scifi story), but they deal in a fair amount of pure shit too.

It is funny how we fear a unified console due to lack of competition. Yet, less publishers is more dangerous as games compete for our dollars with more innovation and differentiation than the conosles do. There really isn't much different between the PS3 and 360 when it comes down to it. The Wii is certainly different, but that system is not geared towards gamers.

"There really isn't much different between the PS3 and 360"

Just better price, better exclusives games, better and more stable multiplatforms games, better online, better download content... but thats it.

I think he meant in terms of hardware, Fernando.

I vote we all chip in and get Fernando a prostitute for the holidays. With comments like these, all the pent up anger and hostility, he most certainly needs to get laid.

"Just better price"

You mean cheaper right? because a better price is also when you are getting more than what you are paying for, in which case, we both know how it goes, right Fernando?

"better exclusives games"

You can't really tell which games is better from which, unless, well, you want to force your opinion on other people, like how I can find Uncharted more fun the Gears...

"better and more stable multiplatforms games"

first, "stable"...hahahaha, well, stable games on unstable console...

anyway, yes, the 360 has many good multiplatform games, but hey, the multiplatform games that were developed on the PS3 are JUST starting to come, so how could you judge beforehand?

"better online"

better online interface, yes, better online service, IMHO no, I prefer having dedicated servers over p2p any day.

"better download content..."

I ll just give you this one, too much to write about this matter.... =/

tl;dr

Calm down Noshino, you aren't convincing anybody of anything.

sigh, mr nimblewick, this is a blog, not a political campaing....

I'd agree with you JarJar except yesterday was International Quit Slapping Dem Hoes day. And with all his rage, I'd hate to see what he does to an anonymous female we paid for sex for him from....

Whatever would happen, I'm certain we can draw parallels from American Psycho.

"I'd agree with you JarJar except yesterday was International Quit Slapping Dem Hoes day. And with all his rage, I'd hate to see what he does to an anonymous female we paid for sex for him from...."

...I would even be more scared, what if she happens to be a Sony fan?...

People should just add their console preference on their resumes to avoid later confrontations...

"...except yesterday was International Quit Slapping Dem Hoes day..."

Awww man, you should have told me ...

They deserve it. Assasin's Creed is awsome.

agreed

Ubisoft can you please just remake Pandora Tomorrow, with the same multiplayer? In fact, just scratch the single player.

Didn't EA just finish a couple disastrous quarters? Massive layoffs, studio closures, all that? Were they really in a position to be buying another large publisher to begin with?

I still need to buy this game.
I'm kind of hoping for a sale though.

Wait? EB wants to assimulate Ubi now? Better do my part!

*Goes out to buy every Ubisoft game I've put off getting.*

What strange times we live in where Ubisoft is considered the little guy.

That said, go Ubisoft!

(featuring the voices of Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and Robin Williams as the side-splitting "Ubi")

LOOOOOL

Man, they should add heart meters for the blog posts themselves too so I could [+] this one.

That's actually a damn good idea. It'd need to be out of a shitload more hearts though, like when you're actually almost done beating Zelda.

It looks like Jade saved Ubisoft single handedly.

Ummm... what's with all the "good job Ubi" crap?

They don't have to sell their company if they don't want to, regardless of how much EA offers. Even before Assasin's Creed sold a bajillion copies, they could have stood their ground and said "no, we'd rather not be swallowed by a soulless corporate machine."

So let's stop pretending that it's all about the games over at Ubi. Their motivations are exactly the same as EA's, just on a smaller scale. And should they one day find themselves successful enough, they won't be any different at all.

"They don't have to sell their company if they don't want to, regardless of how much EA offers."

In fact, they have... it's called hostile takeover (you can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeover)

Also, you are right about Ubi being not only about the games, but you have to agree they are much better than EA, not because they are smaller, but they are clearly more innovative and they publish a lot more excelent games than EA. I'm an Ubi fan... they are the only big publisher really offering us something different.

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Assassin's Creed could save Ubisoft from EA's maw

Reader Comments (38)

Posted: Dec 18th 2007 12:50PM squeevi said

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Posted: Dec 18th 2007 12:58PM mr nimblewick said

Posted: Dec 18th 2007 12:58PM Duke said

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