Ubisoft hasn't been in such a situation for years. Publisher's decisions and global politics turmoil push stock price to unseen lows
Yesterday's carnage on world stock exchanges did not by Ubisoft, as its valuation hit its lowest level in 12 years.
According to Ubisoft, the successful release of Assassin's Creed: Shadows wasn't enough to save the company's stock market ratings. Yesterday, the valuation of its shares fell by 7.83% and reached the lowest level in 12 years. Yesterday, a single Ubisoft share could be purchased for only 9 euros - both on the London and Paris stock exchange. This is the lowest valuation since April 2013.
Of course, it's hard to blame Assassin’s Creed: Shadows for that. The launch was successful according to the publisher, but a single game, regardless of its popularity, cannot change the views of investors who don't see Ubisoft as a company capable of significantly boosting its revenues soon.
This has caused the publisher's ratings to be poor for some time (they have fallen by 62% since April 2024). The record low valuation from yesterday mainly stems from two other big sources.
- First, on Monday, almost all stock exchanges in the world recorded huge drops in response to massive tariffs imposed by the USA. The London Stock Exchange lost 4.4% in value yesterday, and the Paris one - 4.8%.
- Second, in the case of Ubisoft, the valuation is further weakened by uncertainty related to structural changes.
A week ago, the establishment of a new company was announced, to which the most valuable assets of Ubisoft (the Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and Rainbow Six series) will be transferred.
- For the company's CEO, Yves Guillemot, this is a very beneficial move. Despite Tencent's large investment, he will retain control over the new entity, which is valued at 4.64 billion euros—an amount four times higher than the current valuation of Ubisoft itself.
- Some shareholders are not in favor of this transaction, preferring Tencent to just acquire the publisher's assets, allowing them to receive a dividend (based on the valuation of shares from their historically high levels, which seems rather unrealistic).
Until the situation clears up, investing in Ubisoft on the stock market is essentially a gamble, and most people have no interest in that.
Assassin's Creed: Shadows was released on March 20th this year on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5. The game in the week since its release attracted over 3 million players. Today at 7:00 am PT the game will receive its first major update.
- Assassin's Creed: Shadows on Steam
- Assassin's Creed: Shadows Review: Great combat and stealth, where plot plays it too safe
- Assassin’s Creed: Shadows - guide
- First major update for Assassin's Creed: Shadows is just around the corner. It will introduce changes players requested from Ubisoft along with many fixes
- A fan has fixed Assassin's Creed: Shadows's problem that many gamers have complained about
- Assassin's Creed: Shadows is the second best selling game in the US
