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Businesses Entertainment Games

Ubisoft Would Consider Hollywood Buyout 27

Posted by Zonk from the going-to-the-dogs dept.
GamesIndustry.biz has the word that Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia developer Ubisoft may consider a buyout by a Hollywood studio. Intriguing, after the back and forth between Ubisoft and EA earlier this year. From the article: "The CEO told the paper that an acquisition by a large multinational entertainment firm - such as Walt Disney Co. or Time Warner - 'is a solution which could be, for us, fairly interesting.'" Interesting would be to see how such a development would affect the franco-phone-tastic relations that Ubi has with Quebec.
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Ubisoft Would Consider Hollywood Buyout More

Ubisoft Would Consider Hollywood Buyout

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  • Visions of the future... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Sylver Dragon ( 445237 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:01PM (#12549505) Journal
    I can see it now, Disney buys out Ubisoft. A little over a year and a half later we get "Splinter Cell:The Movie". It will be all animated, and we will be subjected to a showstopping musical number, wherein the main protagonist is singing while sneaking into the evil enemy fortress. He won't actually kill anyone, simply distact them at opportune points in the musical number with the most over-the-top stunts ever seen by man. During this whole time the villian's minions will be singing backup for the protagonist.
    Evetually, the story (what little of it there is) will degenerate into a heroic duet as the protagonist and the villian fight it out to the last.
    This movie will be followed by "Splinter Cell:The Movie 2", followed shortly by the direct-to-video release of "Splinter Cell:Kids" The story of the children, who just happen to be agents, rescuing their parents from the evil villian, with silly antics and blindingly obvious traps.
    And, of course, we'll get the accompanying games, which let you "play the movie." Which will, according to the laws of the universe, suck.

    • Sam Fisher: Oh would you like to swing on a star, carry moonbeams home in a jar! And be better off than you are. Or would you rather be a fish?

    • [blah blah blah disneyfication of "Splinter Cell" blah blah blah]

      I just watched "Shrek II" on HBO today.
      "Shrek II" is produced by Dreamworks, which, like everything else in Hollywood, is owned by Disney.
      The movie depicts:

      • a homocidal, drug-using, manic-depressive cat,
      • implied beastiality between a male frog and female human (how does that work?),
      • explicit footage of a humanoid character getting his arms ripped off,
      • disintegration of another humanoid character,
      • police (well, knight) brutality,
      • the crushi
  • ... I suppose having to put up with Sam Fisher wearing Mickey Mouse ears and infiltrating Big Thunder Mountain is preferable to EA getting their hands on Ubi.

  • Is the market saturated? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by acidrain ( 35064 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:26PM (#12549743)
    One would think that a company with as many good games as Ubi would have found a buyer by now. Apparently they have been looking for a long time. I guess it could reflect their large size and the fact that all non-publishing game companies have been trying to sell themselves lately... Anyhow, just as long as it isn't EA I wish them luck. I wonder why EA is too stupid to see that the employees of a French company with cool IP wouldn't stay long if they were bought out by an American company that grinds out shovel-ware? Of course being part of a company that can't seem to sell is not a morale boost either.

  • Disney buys Ubisoft => no Lumines for you (Score:3, Informative)

    by tepples ( 727027 ) <tepples.gmail@com> on Monday May 16, 2005 @09:10PM (#12550046) Homepage Journal

    Disney has a poor track record [skyisfalling.org] with regard to respecting the intellectual commons [respectthe...domain.org], even more so than other MPAA studios. If Disney buys Ubisoft, then advocates of the intellectual commons [creativecommons.org] will have to buy Verticube [frogtoss.com] instead of Lumines.

    • There is really two Disney in one. There is the "corporate Disney" and the classic "Disney" which is slowing fading away.

      I don't see any reason for the classic Disney to incorporate a company like Ubisoft. And the corporate Disney has had serious management problems in the past years.

      Anyhow, that is a pretty good trash-Disney link.

  • Rofl... (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Babblefish translation from French:

    "We don't have a plan for next gen, and we're hoping people with more money than smarts want to take a swing at video games."
  • The province of Quebec unfortunately offers some of the best incentives in the world for game development studios with various funds, incentives and tax grants for R&D as well as technology employment. This is the only reason why anyone sets up there, not because of their training, education or talent (which is good but wasn't anything special). So to answer Zonks question, no there wouldn't be a change, not unless someone wants to spend more money doing the same thing at least. As a side note, I am a

    • Re:Sorry, No Quebec Change... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by EulerX07 ( 314098 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @11:22PM (#12550902)
      So the guys that created Splinter Cell are "good but nothing special". If they were nothing special, the games wouldn't have been huge successes that prompted Ubisoft to increase their involvement in Montreal.

      Your really think the auto industry that makes southern ontario rich gets no subsidies? Get real. For every Honda or Toyota sold anywhere in Canada a tariff is taken and funneled back to the companies that hasn't given a job to canadians living outside of the southern ontario peninsula for 40 years. Wait that's not true, we had a plant that was one of the most productive ones for GM, out in Boisbriand, was closed down when the F-bodies productio where stopped (camaro and firebird). The TCA was really cool with the Boisbriand plant closing, as long as all ontario plants where safe.

      You think Quebec has no income other then the money given to us by the almighty Ontarians? Hydro-Quebec by itself generated 2.4 billion in profit, and gave the government a 1.4 billion dividend, not counting all the secondary benefits from being able to provide cheap electricity to companies like Alcan, Alcoa et al.

      If you're from Alberta, well, sorry, we ain't pumping pure money out of the ground like you guys are, wish we where. But my experience has told me that people that go out on the web to slander quebecers are usually from southern Ontario. Which is kinda fitting, since your elite has spent the last 25 years scaring american investors into putting money into Toronto and not the evil french province, even when it costs way more to do something in the GTA then in greater Montreal.
      • Ya I hate to say it but the talent you find in Quebec is no different than what you would find any other location in North America. The difference is like I said that the Quebec provincial government is the only one with any intelligence to invest early into this stuff. Which I must say I am quite envious and jealous, I wish we had non inept technology ministers here who knew how to do their dammed jobs and invest in its citizens properly. As for Quebec provincial income, the only figure worth pointing ou
        • Listen "Buddy", at the end of the day the developpers in montreal where asked to do games and they did EXTREMELY well with the Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell series. And by extremely well I mean smashing successes. Keep singing that you could have done it as good, we all know the tune.

          And as far as your further disinformation spread about my province regarding Labrador, here's a lowdown for people that want the real facts. In a nutshell, Labrador was part of Quebec (called Lower Canada back then) until
  • In finance speak, the term for what UbiSoft is looking for is a White Knight. Basically, a White Knight is a company (or rich financier, like Warren Buffet) who comes in and saves your company from being taken over by someone who you find unpleasant. There can be lots of reasons for this, such as a fear of change in the corporate culture or a fear by major investors that the people trying to take over will run the comapny into the ground.

    Of course, the "white knight" can turn out to have a black heart,

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