Ubisoft set to close China online store
Move to halt direct merchandise sales comes ahead of 618 shopping festival
French video gaming giant Ubisoft Entertainment, the publisher behind hit actionadventure franchise Assassin’s Creed, is set to close its official online store on the mainland as the company ceases direct merchandise sales in the industry’s largest market.
Ubisoft’s flagship store on Tmall, the e-commerce platform owned by Alibaba Group Holding, would halt sales from next Wednesday following a “strategic adjustment” to “no longer operate its merchandise sales business in China”, the company announced last Friday via its official account on Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. Alibaba owns the Post.
“Following a review of our collectibles and merchandising products strategy in China, we have decided to stop our direct sales in the country,” a representative from Ubisoft China said in a statement to the Post yesterday.
Still, the Tencent Holdingsbacked company said it remained committed to the Chinese market.
“We will continue to launch products in collaboration with licensing partners, and these will be available on the sales channels of our partners,” the statement said.
Ubisoft saw its revenue decline during its past financial year to March 31, which chairman and chief executive Yves Guillemot described as a “challenging year” that had prompted cost reduction efforts. It posted an operating loss of ¤500.2 million (HK$4.1 billion) as net bookings declined by 18 per cent to ¤1.74 billion from the previous financial year.
At present, Ubisoft’s Tmall store offers a variety of merchandise from apparel priced under 100 yuan (HK$110.60) to so-called garage kits that each cost more than 2,000 yuan. These products are based on some of the firm’s popular video game franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s and Just Dance.
The company’s move to discontinue its direct merchandise sales on the mainland comes ahead of China’s annual “618” shopping festival on June 18.
It also reflects a trend among major foreign video gaming companies to withdraw from China where the industry is tightly regulated.
US publisher Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of video game holding company Activision Blizzard, suspended on January 24 the operations of World of Warcraft and its other popular online games on the mainland following failed talks with NetEase for a six-month extension of their licensing agreement.
American developer Epic Games, the studio behind online video game Fortnite, shut down that title’s operations in China in November 2021 after local partner Tencent failed to get a licence to officially launch the game in the country.