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Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, has said that he thinks Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is “good news” because of what it means for mobile gaming.
Speaking to investors in the company’s latest earnings call, Guillemot was asked what he thought of the Activision Blizzard deal, in relation to his decision for Ubisoft to not be acquired by another company (thanks, VGC). “I think it’s good news that the transaction can go through because it’s really showing the power of IPs and where the industry is going,” Guillemot said. “So, there will be lots of opportunities too in the future for all the companies.
“And it’s also showing the value of IPs that can now be on console and PC, but also mobile, and become more worldwide brands, and when we say worldwide it’s really everywhere in the world, and that’s a fantastic opportunity… Microsoft is saying that the mobile part of the Activision deal is important, so all the investments we are making to be stronger on mobile are also in line with that, so all those elements will help the value of the company to grow.”
Last year, Xbox head Phil Spencer said that the main reason Microsoft sought to acquire Activision Blizzard was because of mobile gaming opportunities, something Microsoft hasn’t succeeded with so far. This is obviously a reason that groups like the US’ Federal Trade Commission and the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority haven’t focused on too much, instead concerns being more to do with Call of Duty, and oddly, cloud gaming.
Ubisoft has plenty of titles on the way, with the biggest of its upcoming mobile output being Assassin’s Creed Codename Jade, the first game in the long-running series that will be a fully open world experience on mobile. Sign-ups to play Jade are currently running now, ahead of the game’s closed beta in August.