Sacred Symbols+, #412 | How Do You Solve A Problem Like Ubisoft? (Patreon)

It's me, Colin! Please welcome Punching Up co-host Gene Park and LSM legal analyst Rick Hoeg back to Sacred Symbols+ for a conversation all about French publisher Ubisoft. As you likely already know, the Guillemot family's prized company is having a very bad year. Since the beginning of this calendar year, its market cap has fallen by about half, a catastrophic turn-of-events for the once-powerful entity that controls a few of gaming's biggest IP, including Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy, and Far Cry. Bloated beyond belief with some 20,000 employees spread across nearly 50 studios and corporate, with steadily-floundering game sales, and -- perhaps most importantly -- an increasingly-activist group of shareholders, founder and CEO Yves Guillemot may opt to team-up with Chinese conglomerate (and current minority shareholder) Tencent to bring the company private, where it can begin to be repaired. Thus, today's conversation between the three of us is all about this very topic: What's gone wrong with Ubisoft, and how can it be saved?