A company that serves as a "significant minority shareholder" in Ubisoft has called for major structural and strategic change at the studio and has expressed "deep dissatisfaction" with Ubisoft's current direction.
In an open letter to Ubisoft's board of directors, which CCs CEO Yves Guillemot and stakeholder Tencent, investment company AJ Investments criticizes Ubisoft's "current performance and strategic direction".
AJ Investments says Ubisoft's recent quarterly results, which saw upcoming releases The Division Resurgence and Rainbow Six Mobile pushed back beyond March next year, have "heightened" its concerns about management's ability to deliver results for shareholders.
The investor sets out four proposals to "increase [the] value of Ubisoft for all stakeholders". They include allowing Ubisoft to go private, selling the company, changing current management and ousting Guillemot as CEO, or starting a "proxy fight" via French minority law.
As for its reasoning, AJ Investors says that Ubisoft is being "mismanaged", and that shareholders are currently "hostages of Guillemot family members and Tencent who take advantages of them".
The company goes on to say that it "cannot understand" Ubisoft's management strategy, and that the studio seems more focused on "pleasing investors" rather than providing an "exceptional experience" for its fans.
AJ Investors claims that many of the studio's IPs, including Rayman, Watch Dogs, and Splinter Cell, are being underutilized, and that recent releases are underwhelming.
The company does, however, say that Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was merely "okay", but that "nobody talks about the game anymore". That's...probably because it's a single-player game everyone's finished, guys. Not every game needs to be headline news every day of the week.
Further on into the letter, AJ Investors proposes several ways by which Ubisoft could improve its performance and its standing with shareholders.
They include taking the company private for a "fair price", as well as laying off staff, a procedure AJ Investors rather callously refers to as "optimiz[ing] staff levels". Other recommendations include refocusing on core IPs and another call for changes in management.
This letter comes after industry analyst Serkan Toto pointed out last week that investors seem "very disappointed" about the sales of Star Wars Outlaws, with shares dipping 10% in just two days. Toto followed this up with another post today noting that stocks had fallen another 9% in Paris.
AJ Investors does note that the Star Wars Outlaws Metacritic score currently sits at 76, a score the company says is "quite good in our view" (despite stating earlier that the game was "not 100% ready to release"). For what it's worth, our own reviewer rather liked it as well.
We'll have to wait and see how Ubisoft responds to AJ Investors' call for change, if indeed it responds at all. Stay tuned for more.
