Ubisoft Wants To Challenge EA Sports

The CEO of Ubisoft came out yesterday and stated the company will be looking to increase their share of the sports game market this year. Leading up to the end of 2009, Shaun White Snowboarding was a big success for the company selling 2.3 million worldwide. They remain open to the acquisition of development studios in achieving this goal.

Pointing to Shaun White Snowboarding isn’t exactly a great example of how they would be able to take on EA Sports however. At this point it is difficult to imagine another company jumping in fresh and paying for league license rights to produce sports simulations. They can’t be involved with the MLB or NFL. Might be able to do something with the NBA given that Midway dropped out of their contract with the league. More likely though on their own Ubisoft could continue with the more tailored Wii titles as there seems to be potential there or arcade style games that don’t require a particular license.

The thing that came to mind when I heard this was the potential of Ubisoft purchasing 2K Sports. The division has been losing money for Take Two and they’ve been seeking potential suitors for quite a while. As Ubisoft makes this public declaration they would seem to be the most likely destination for 2K Sports to end up if a sale were to happen. While there isn’t much room for a company to create new franchises in the main sports, by aquiring 2K Sports they would have the development studios that are already creating these games without splitting sales of the titles any further in a shriking potential consumer base.