Ubisoft sells off shares in Gameloft

Ubisoft has sold off its stake in developer Gameloft to investment bank Calyon.

The move comes as Ubisoft looks to focus on the expansion of its publisher/developer business.

Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer of Ubisoft, commented: "The video game market offers numerous internal and external growth opportunities. We have therefore decided to sell our stake in Gameloft in order to focus on Ubisoft’s expansion and strengthen our ability to seize all such growth opportunities."

Ubisoft owned close to 20 per cent of the mobile game developer and distributor, with the two building a close relationship as Gameloft made mobile conversions of games including Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia.

Of late Gameloft has been widening the number of platforms it develops games for, moving beyond the world’s multitude of mobile devices to Nintendo DS and Xbox Live Arcade (when making games like Brothers in Arms and Prince of Persia for Ubisoft) and also taking its own licensed game of Lost to the iPod platform.

Guillemot said the two would still work together "at a purely operational level, particularly concerning the utilization of Ubisoft’s brands on mobile phones."