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That Park Place has a DEI disaster story. Ubisoft Value Tanks: Market Cap Dropped 85% From 2021 to 2025

85% decline in market capitalization points to horrible performance.

Once a titan in the gaming industry, Ubisoft has experienced a dramatic and concerning decline in value over the past four years. From a market capitalization of $12.17 billion in January 2021, the company’s value plummeted to a mere $1.78 billion by January 2025.

And they have been failing, just in 2024.

The first thing they released in 2024 (or the first thing I heard of anyway) was Skull & Bones. A decade in development, it cost between $650 million and $850 million. Touted as a "quadruple-A" game before it came out; it failed.

The next big game that I was aware of was Star Wars Outlaws. It was released with pretty bad coding errors, insane game story arcs, and it too failed.

Then there was Assassin's Creed: Shadows, the first entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise to be set in Japan. Ubisoft decided that the thing to do was have a game set in medieval Japan to feature a black protagonist. Japan rejected it, and the outcry was so bad in the US that they couldn't shout people down with cries of "racist." Originally scheduled to come out in 2024, the release was pushed to February, to fix the problems. They won't replace the black protagonist, they don't have time for that, but they do have time fix the type of problems that plagued Star Wars Outlaws.

Ubisoft also announced that they would discontinue XDefiant, a multiplayer game, in 2025.

Cultural and ideological overreach has also played a role in Ubisoft’s downfall. The company’s intense focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives has alienated a portion of its core fanbase. Overindulgence in DEI without balancing other strategic priorities has led to disenchantment among loyal customers and investors, contributing to the erosion of Ubisoft’s market confidence.

Workforce challenges further complicate Ubisoft’s financial struggles. The company has been forced to hire external contractors due to an overstaffed and inexperienced internal workforce.

People who make video games are not interchangeable cogs in a a machine. You can't alienate your employees, force the old ones out, bring in new employees, and expect the same results. Some of it is a creative endeavor. There are stories to be told. I haven't followed the goings on at Ubisoft closely, but other studios have seen mass exodus of game developers go and join new studios, or start their own.

Click thru for details on their financial position.

Also game companies, movie studios and other entertainment organizations can't scream at their customers "you're bad if you don't like our product." Imagine a vegetarian chef bought the biggest/fanciest steak house in your city, and completely changed the menu. Would anyone be shocked if they went out of business? A business is more than the name on the building. The customer may not always be right, but telling them to F- off is not a good way of staying in business.

The hat tip for this goes to Ryan Kinel os RK Outpost, and his video Ubisoft Is DEAD, And DEI Killed It | Lost Over 85% Of It's Value After EPIC Failures! It's a 5 minute video.