Ubisoft reboots business with Creative House plan, reveals future of its biggest franchises

Ubisoft reveals a more coherent organizational structure following its $1.2 billion deal with Tencent.

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Ubisoft has made big changes to its studios and how it operates. The company today announced its new Creative Houses, a management structure that sees Ubisoft's core development teams and franchises split into different "houses."

Now Ubisoft has detailed how this structure will work. There will be 5 Creative Houses total, with each group having a specific focus (shooters, live games, fantasy, etc) in creating new games in various series. For example, Creative House 1 is Vantage Studios, which handles Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. This is the Tencent-backed subsidiary; in exchange for a $1.2 billion investment into Ubisoft, Tencent acquired 25% stake in Vantage Studios, effectively meaning Tencent may receive a quarter of the profits earned from Ubisoft's top franchises.

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Other Creative House units are more predictable, with Creative House 2 (principally made of Massive Entertainment) handling Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and The Division.

The biggest shift is that each of these Creative Houses will be responsible for their own financial performance. Seemingly gone are the days of oner division's under-performance collectively weighing down the others in key metrics.

"Each Creative House will have end-to-end responsibility for its portfolio, overseeing the full creative and brand scope from development to publishing (brand, marketing and sales go-to-market strategy)," Ubisoft explains in the announcement.

"They will also be financially accountable, both in terms of P&L and cash generation. This structure will sharpen strategic focus, reinforce execution discipline and ensure that investment decisions will be taken closer to where value is created."

At the heart of this reset is a new and decentralized operating model structured around five Creative Houses. These integrated business units will feature 3 major changes:

1. They will combine game development and go-to-market functions with a gamer-centric approach, and be fully responsible for brand development, content strategy as well as editorial direction;

2. They will be shaped by distinct creative 'genres' led by dedicated high-profile, incentivized teams with a unique set of expertise in those genres;

3. They will have full financial ownership and account for economic performance.