Ubi: We can beat EA and Activision

Ubisoft’s founder and CEO Yves Guillemot has told MCV that his company can overtake the industry’s two behemoths, Activision and EA, to become the global games market leader.

Commenting on the eve of the firm’s MCV Award Grand Prix win, he said that EA selling its stake in Ubisoft last year has made the company feel a lot better”. It opens the way for possible acquisitions.

He said: When they left it changed lots of things for us. We had a competitor owning a share of the company and we were always wary that they could decide they would go for the company – and that wouldn’t have been welcome.

The problem is that when you have the number one player in your company, you can’t buy another company that would be in conflict with them or their strategy.

So now we are totally independent again, we feel a lot better, we are number three and our goal is to beat those guys, EA and Activision, at some point.”

Ubisoft is expected to announce revenues of just over €1 billion for the financial year just ended. Activision and EA boast annual revenues of roughly $4.5bn and $3.5bn respectively.

Guillemot, however, is not daunted by the size of the task: We got from number 25 to number three, so we think that we can continue and that it is possible to be number one. It’s not certain, but we are taking the steps that we think will get us there.

Asked if that would ultimately have to be through acquisition, he replied: It has to be by creating or finding products that will make the difference and will be recognised as the best products in the industry. We have to create the products that will fuel the growth. I’m not saying we won’t do acquisitions, but the focus is on creating products.”

To read the full interview with Guillemot, head over to the Features Section.