Ubisoft announced today that it has acquired all rights to the Tom Clancy name and intellectual property for perpetuity, and will finally be free of royalty payments for the ten years' worth of games (including best-selling series Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell) published under the international espionage writer's brand. Interestingly enough, the purchase is not limited to games, but also the rights to future movies and books Ubisoft may decide to publish under Clancy's name.
Now that a little matter of royalties are settled, Next Generation reports that Ubisoft is ready to begin more ambitious projects using the license, including a Tom Clancy MMO:
During a call regarding the IP acquisition, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said, "On MMOs, the investment is really high. So we need to maximize the revenue. With the royalties we had [to pay], it was another barrier to creating a [Tom Clancy MMO], because the original investment was diminished by that.
"Having no fees, it's going to give us a full return, [so] we've really decided now to go for an MMO on the Clancy name, which is big."
However, details regarding expected release, features or even subject material are conspicuously absent... perhaps even classified. But don't worry -- we've got top men working on it now.
For those who enjoy reading press releases:
Today, Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announces that it has concluded an agreement with Mr. Tom Clancy to acquire all intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name, on a perpetual basis and free of all related future royalty payments, for use in video games and ancillary products including related books, movies and merchandising products.
The price of this all cash acquisition is not currently disclosed. Post acquisition, Ubisoft expects to have a net cash position of around 130 million Euros by the end of fiscal 2007-08, compared to a previous expectation of approximately 150 million Euros. Additional payments will be made as well in fiscal 2008-09 and fiscal 2009-10.
On the basis of past performance of Tom Clancy branded video games, and excluding any potential contribution coming from sales of ancillary products, the royalty savings generated by this acquisition are estimated to have an average positive impact on Ubisoft's operating income of a minimum of 5 million Euros per year.
"After ten years of a highly successful collaboration which has seen the creation of blockbusters that set standards in the videogame industry, such as Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, today, acquiring the perpetual property rights of the Tom Clancy name for video games and related projects is a major event," stated Yves Guillemot, Chief Executive Officer at Ubisoft. “The future of our industry lies in our capacity to create and develop brands that captivate consumers and that present a myriad of opportunities for the full spectrum of entertainment, be it video games, books, movies or other media. The Tom Clancy brand is recognized around the world for offering exciting video games, films and books. The most recent example of such value creation through brand management is the EndWar book, based on the video game story, which has been in the NY Times top 10 Paperback Mass Market Fiction bestseller list for the last four weeks. Capitalizing on the strong franchises that we’ve built over the past 10 years, we will take the Tom Clancy game brand to the next level of the global entertainment industry."
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July 30th, 2008 at 11:20 am
[...] ten-year deal to establish a spy-action franchise competitive with rival publisher Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy series, but after three years in development the only Vivendi-published, Ludlum-inspired title [...]
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