Ubisoft buys into free online gaming

Ubisoft, the French developer of several smash-hit games including Ghost Recon and Rabbid, is making a play for the online gaming world by buying Owlient, a startup that has built a business creating free-to-play Internet games. The long game for Ubisoft is to crack open the potentially massively lucrative (or massively convertible to paid-for console gaming) world of tablet, social media and mobile phone gaming.

Some of this strategy was already on the wind when it announced a free, online version of its successful “Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon” military game last month, along with other titles such as “CSI Crime City” and “Heroes Kingdoms” as well as “Settlers Online,” which has reportedly become a hit in Germany. The challenge for Ubisoft is turning this free-to-play action into revenues, which is where the comment from Ubisoft boss, Yves Guillemot, is revealing: