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Assassin’s Creed is a Huge Success
By Jay Alan | December 18, 2007
News about just how successful, and how important, Assassin’s Creed’s was for Ubisoft is starting to appear. First of all, according to Gaming Age, the game has already shipped 2.5 million copies, with Ubisoft expecting to sell through 5 million by the end of the year. That’s an amazing number, the only other title to sell 5 million copies this year is the juggernaut of video games, Halo 3.
Also, Ubisoft was in danger of a hostile takeover by EA. EA is worried about the new Activision Blizzard merger and Ubisoft was an affordable and tantalizing target, until the success of Assassin’s Creed made Ubisoft to valuable. Via Next-Gen:
“The success of Assassin’s Creed has helped Ubisoft increase its market value to €3bn ($4.3bn), making it all that more expensive as a target,” stated the column.
In December 2004, Redwood City, Calif.-based EA bought a 20 percent stake in Paris, France-based rival Ubisoft. Since then, the stake has dropped to 15 percent. EA’s purchase of shares was unsolicited, and considered “hostile” by Ubisoft.
The recent $18.9 billion Activision Blizzard merger has people wondering how the new entity’s largest competitor will react. EA told Next-Gen following the news that the merger “doesn’t change” EA’s strategy. The firm announced plans to acquire BioWare/Pandemic in October in a deal worth over $800 million.
Great news, as Ubisoft is doing just fine as it is. Ubisoft Montreal has quickly become my personal favorite developer, with titles like Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell. The last thing I needed was EA getting their greedy little hands on all those great franchises, only to spew out mediocre sequel after mediocre sequel. Just imagine the awefulness of Assassin’s Creed 2009: Now with Playmaker and EA TRAX!
