The Polish company CD Projekt RED has overtaken Ubisoft in terms of its market value and has actually become the biggest European publisher. According to Forbes, despite almost 400 games published, Ubisoft’s total value is about $3 billion, while CD Projekt RED, which has only two main franchises, The Witcher and Cyberpunk, is worth $3.5 billion.
Ubisoft has traditionally been considered one of the largest players in the gaming industry. The company has been operating since 1986 and the total number of projects in which Ubisoft has participated as a developer and/or publisher is about 400 games. Its main franchises include such titles as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Division, Rainbow Six Siege, Ghost Recon, and Star Wars.
However, the company has recently been plagued by a series of failures (which have affected almost all of its games in one way or another). And Ubisoft seems to be trying to compensate with the quantity rather than the quality of projects, which is only worsening the situation. Therefore, according to Forbes, the total value of Ubisoft is now only about $3 billion, down from an estimated in 2020.
As for CDPR, the company has only 12 releases and two franchises (Cyberpunk and The Witcher), which are currently in development. Nevertheless, its capitalization has already recovered somewhat after a sharp drop due to the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk, and the company has big plans to expand Cyberpunk as well as continue the new Witcher trilogy.
The total market capitalization of CD Projekt RED exceeds $3.5 billion, and the company has already become the biggest European-based publisher and an example of how to create high-quality projects or at least finish them after an unsuccessful start.
Why is it interesting?
If Ubisoft is worth only $3 billion but retains the rights to such popular titles as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Division, Rainbow Six Siege, Ghost Recon, and Star Wars, it makes the company a potential acquisition target for Sony, Microsoft, or other large tech companies trying to expand their presence in the gaming market.
For comparison, a similar deal between Activision and Microsoft is worth $69 billion. And before that, Microsoft acquired Bethesda for $7.5 billion. Sony has just bought Bungie, which now has only one franchise, Destiny, for $3.6 billion, which is more than the entire Ubisoft is worth.
