Ubisoft's vice president of live operations has weighed in on the publisher's potential takeover by Vivendi by saying, "It wouldn't be the same."
Ubisoft equally surely been doing its best to fend it off. Vivendi brings enough financial muscle to the table that if it really wants to take over, it likely will, sooner or later. But in an interview with PCGamesN, Ubisoft's vice president of live operations Anne Blondel warned that losing its independence would likely have a very negative impact on the games it makes.
Blondel said being "super-independent" and "very autonomous" has been a big part of Ubisoft's success over the past 30 years. And no, you can't really describe a publisher the size of Ubisoft as "indie," and major franchises like Assassin's Creed, Watch Dogs, and Far Cry are obviously both big-budget and formulaic.
She goes on to say the company's independence allows it to take chances and create diverse experiences. "Sometimes we take a lot of risks, you think about The Crew, that was a risk. People would look at that like, 'Maybe it’s not going to work, another racing game, what are you thinking?' Child of Light, Valiant Hearts, all those kinds of titles."
Aside from its conventional efforts to maintain independence—the sorts of things you read about in shareholder reports—Ubisoft has also been working over the past several months to bolster goodwill among gamer. It's been giving away games monthly since mid-year, and recently moved to daily freebies through a sort of digital advent calendar; it also recently pledged to put an end to "compulsory" DLC for its games.
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