Ubisoft requires a lot of lay offs and closing down studios. That it would lead to a huge backlash so Microsoft is not touching it.
I don’t think it would be that much of a backlash as they are getting bought by someone in the next 5 years. So its not like we are living in a world where they are staying independent. So its really about who would you rather own them.
I also don’t forsee that many layoffs. As Microsoft hasn’t done that for any other acquisitions. The bulk of the people ubisoft has that really bolsters the numbers is the fact they also own there own support studios so everything is internal. in a time and place where the industry is facing a staffing shortage if they were to acquire them they aren’t going to layoff devs. Move them around to different projects sure but not lay them off.
Will be interesting few years to say the least.
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But it really doesn’t, devs are in such high demand that Microsoft for example are struggling to recruit to posts.
They may need to be restrutured or redeployed to different teams. The support studios could be reorganised to support lots of different studios not just Ubisoft. That said if they sorted out their top level management structure and started making the games people want they might not even need that!
Again it’s a perfect opportunity for someone like Microsoft.
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I’m not sure I agree with this point; people said the same thing after Bethesda and there were no layoffs, in fact the studios all have grown since the closure of the acquisition. Additionally, this is hardly the first time Microsoft has purchased an organization with a large amount of staff (LinkedIn, for example), and as others have pointed out, the rarity of available developers almost guarantees layoffs wouldn’t be an issue.
I am not saying Ubisoft is happening by any means, I’m simply saying if there’s a reason against the deal, staff count ain’t it.
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The shear number of employees, in-house support studios and studio locations is only a positive for someone like MS IMO!
Especially when devs and support studios are in such high demand.
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I don’t expect Microsoft to get Ubisoft(at least anytime soon) but if they did I would doubt there would be layoffs. If anything Microsoft could just transfer the employees to other studios or projects.
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Yeah I don’t know why Xbox would close down studios if they bought Ubisoft
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If this is not a pre-desperate call for an acquisition, then I dunno what it would be.
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At this point it is expected that if they were to go with private equity firm, some staff will be cut off. But nobody cares about private equity firms. That is not the case for Microsoft though, where each and every its step is scrutinized by the media and they always have to clarify one thing or another thing for no reason or even ahead of something.
Ubisoft essentially is a heavily bloated company - 2x ABK, 3x T2, 2x EA while their revenue and income being relatively small in comparison to their size, heavy mismanagement in their regional studios and so on (delayed, cancelled projects due to mismanagement) and they don’t even have a proper direction in their development.
You can hire people without acquiring studios. It is one of the reasons why WB (NRS aside) without DC IPs is not that attractive proposition.
The difference is that Ubisoft has too much staff in comparison to their revenue and profit margins. As I mentioned - 2x ABK, 3x T2, 2x EA. They require heavy heavy restructuring and you won’t be able to achieve that with just “oh, you will now work with this, while you will work with that”.
Just like with Square Enix offloading their western division - Ubisoft has to go through some streamlining process.
I don’t know, not that I ever believe regulators would let Microsoft own 2 of the 3 largest publishers in the world and get Ubisoft after Activision, but I imagine Xbox and Phil and co would love to get several of those Ubisoft support studios onboarded and moved over to Halo infinite, Starfield, and any of their several other games that are needing staff to keep them going, or hit release dates more consistently.
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What about those rumored acquisitions a while back involving IOI and Avalanche?
There will be definitely be more acqusitions in the next 18 months. The idea is for more and more studios to grow GP content.
Dare I say by mid/end 2024 they are on 40 studios +
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It’s a call to avoid an acquisition, as no one in their right business mind would look at SE after their push into NFT plans. The only ones interested would be those already deeply in the crypto and NFT realms.
They might be interested in some studios there, but I don’t expect them to go after Ubisoft and I don’t believe that there will be regulatory concerns if they were to do that.
Jeff Grubb implied that Microsoft is testing them, so I guess unless it is a defensive acquisition - neither IO (if their game succeeds they can sell for more) nor Microsoft (they first need to see the project success first) will be interested to be acquired right now.
Square Enix is not really attractive acquisition - aside Sony not being able to afford them - they already own FF mainline for years to come, so if anybody who wants to acquire them will get FF14 at best with not defined roadmaps for games KH3. So if Microsoft were to acquire them - FF will be exclusive still for years to come, KH & DQ are partial licenses - so cannot really make them really exclusive, so it only leaves FF14.
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Watch the deal fall through because Embracer’s attitude “Did not meet expectations.”
I will be curious to see how long it takes all these pending deals to go through (ABK, Bungie, Square West, etc.) then even more curious to see who’s next.
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If Square Enix were to cancel the deal with Embracer Group that would be worse for them since they already had a difficult managing and maintaining their western division and would only lose them more money to keep them at this point.
And the longest acquisition to go through will most likely be the ABK acquisition while the others might be finalized in a few months or so.
Restructuring doesn’t always require layoffs. They need a shake up sure, but as the countless posts above have already stated the number of talented devs will be a huge positive not a negative.
Tell that to all the HR departments in Xbox, Bethesda, Activision & Blizzard whom have thousands of vacancies (many of which have been open for quite some time!), Activision has 620 on it’s own!
Oh while your at it - let all the delayed projects, who can’t get any support studios (due to no availability) that they can simply just create their own support studios too 
. I’m sure it will be easy to recruit 300-400 staff with AAA experience (who all work well together), find a suitable premises and source/install IT equipment. That will only take a few months eh?
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“and then they demanded more from the company who owns the the WRPGs and is now getting SMT games”
I think if u have the opportunity to buy a publisher you do it for long term gains, not short term. Sony having FF locked up til 2025 is not going to prevent Microsoft from buying them in 2023 or 2024. Even without the immediate games people will be forced to make their console purchase decision knowing that future Square Enix games will be on Xbox and their presence on Playstation is up in the air.
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There is no way that Take Two, EA, and Capcom stay independent as they are. The arms race is heating up, and more than likely they are the next video game titans to be acquired by someone
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