Ubisoft boss thinks video game streaming will be big

Ubisoft is one of the leading video game companies out there, with top-notch video game franchises under its belt like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry.

The company, though, might be able to score big when it comes to video game streaming, due to the fact that Microsoft recently announced it would sell the streaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft, in what could be a major boost for the French company.

You see, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot is apparently betting big on video game streaming, and seems really enthusiastic about the future of it as he recently told the Financial Times (via Eurogamer) in an interview.

The Ubisoft CEO said that “when it [streaming] takes off, it will happen very quickly”, clearly believing that video game streaming will be big in the future.

Guillemot also cited the case of Netflix, which scored big with streaming on TV – saying that although “their shares fell a lot and they were widely criticized”, they succeeded in their venture. “Today, see what they have become”, said the Ubisoft man.

It would be wise to point out, though, that Ubisoft’s shares have also taken a beating in recent times. They hit a peak in the summer of 2018, and have fallen by more than 70 % since then. It seems that the company’s troubles – such as a widespread harassment scandal which came to light in 2020, leading to the firing of several high-profile people at the company, plus several cancelled video game projects – have taken their toll.

So maybe Guillemot thinks that betting big on streaming might be a way to go back to the glory days, and believes streaming will be an important part of the future of gaming, something the Frenchman said after announcing the streaming deal with Microsoft for Activision Blizzard games (Microsoft has yet to complete its acquisition of Activision Blizzard at the time of writing).

“We strongly believe in the next five to 10 years, many games will be streamed and will also be produced in the cloud”, said Ubisoft’s boss.

Will future Ubisoft games be played via streaming?

There might be several hurdles to overcome in the path to a future where most video games are played via streaming, instead of running on a PC or console in the living room, though. For instance, Google’s much vaunted Stadia platform ended up being a failure and closed this year, despite the company pouring billions into it.

Ubisoft, though, is obviously undeterred by this, and so is Microsoft, which is planning to release an Xbox console in 2028 which can play “cloud hybrid” video games as Eurogamer points out.

Also, and even if streaming fails to take off in the way Guillemot expects, the company still has some of the most valuable franchises in gaming. A new Assassin’s Creed game is coming next month, while another Far Cry game is also in the works. It will also launch Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in December, a game based on James Cameron’s Avatar movies which is one of the top 10 video games coming in the second half of 2023.