Ubisoft's Guillemot Responds To EA Acquisition Chatter

Author: by Staff

In a new feature interview with Gamasutra, Ubisoft co-founder and president Yves Guillemot has responded to continued discussion of Electronic Arts' 20% hostile stake in the company, admitting that merging is an option, but indicating that Ubisoft "can take a big share" of the game market without EA's intervention. Specifically, when asked whether anything further has happened, following EA's purchase of 20% of Ubisoft's shares in late 2004, Guillemot commented: "We're still considering. The first option for us is to manage our own company and grow it. The second option is to work with the movie industry, and the third is to merge. We think the market is going to grow fast, and we can take a big share of that market, so we don't have to change the way things are done at the moment." In the last few days, Gamasutra also caught up with EA's Bing Gordon to ask the CCO the very same question - Gordon suggested: "I think everybody is for sale. I think in general, successful intellectual properties in all media are undervalued, especially in our media." He continued: "There's been a lot of acquisitions, but the thing about acquisitions is that the only time it works is if you've got an intellectual property that can succeed without the people, or if the people have a ten-year career path that they're interested in at EA." The full interview with Ubisoft's Guillemot, posted on Gamasutra today, also includes insight on his company's future, the importance of original IP such as the forthcoming Assassin's Creed, and Ubisoft's plans to move into CG films to be created alongside its games.