A minority investor in Ubisoft has called on the company to go private amid a shares slump following the release of Star Wars Outlaws.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Slovakia-based AJ Investments issued a strongly worded open letter to Ubisoft’s board of directors, including its CEO Yves Guillemot, as well as fellow investor Tencent, that expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the company and its current share price.
Last week, Ubisoft’s share price plunged following the launch of Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars Outlaws, which some analysts predicted will come in below expectations. IGN's Star Wars Outlaws review returned a 7/10. We said: "Star Wars Outlaws is a fun intergalactic heist adventure with great exploration, but it’s hindered by simple stealth, repetitive combat, and a few too many bugs at launch." Outlaws isn’t the only game seemingly impacting Ubisoft shares. Free-to-play Call of Duty rival Xdefiant also appears to be having a tough time.
AJ Investments, a hedge fund that holds less than 1% in Ubisoft, urged the board of directors to take the company private or sell it to a strategic investor. The group clearly wants to see Guillemot out as CEO, and threatened to gather similarly disgruntled minority shareholders for a “proxy fight” that would brute force a sale if its demands are not met. It also called for further layoffs at the company, despite the brutal state of the video game industry for developers.
“Ubisoft at current state is mismanaged and shareholders are hostages of Guillemot family members and Tencent who take advantage of them,” the open letter reads. There’s further and somewhat bizarre commentary on pretty much all of Ubisoft’s games, including the cancelation of free-to-play shooter The Division Heartland, pirate game Skull and Bones, which the investment group says “was not a success,” single-player adventure Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (“was okay but not very impressive as nobody talks about the game anymore”), and ongoing live service multiplayer shooter Rainbow Six Siege, which the group admits “is doing great.”
However, franchises such as Rayman, Splinter Cell, For Honor, and Watch Dogs “are sleeping for years.” And on Star Wars Outlaws, it’s “expected to bring good numbers, but recent reviews shows that game was not 100% ready to release, despite the fact that [sic] whole world was waiting for open world game under the Star Wars franchise.” The group pointed to Outlaws’ 76 Metascore and even IGN’s review, “which is quite good rating in our view."
IGN has asked Ubisoft for comment.
Ubisoft has yet to comment on Star Wars Outlaws’ commercial performance. Ubisoft has said it enjoyed a “solid” start to its financial year (April to June), and looked forward to a “strong upcoming release slate” with Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. “We are excited about the future and confident in the sustained progress of our turnaround throughout the year,” Guillemot said at the time.
The pressure is now on Assassin’s Creed Shadows, due out in November, to make a big impact on Ubisoft’s bottom line.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
