It’s a double dip of acquisition news today. Following the announcement that EA is acquiring PopCap, Ubisoft has come up with an announcement of its own: it is acquiring the free-to-play specialist Owlient.
Owlient’s premier product is Howrse, and online brand with nearly two million monthly active users. The acquisition brings another 40 people into the Ubisoft fold.
This is yet more proof that all the major publishers are looking to these new, digital models as sustainable business practices. With current king of the hill, Zynga, about to become a listed company, this is a market that everyone is now taking seriously, and will continue to be a major impact on the way the entire industry works for some time to come.
Other recent Ubisoft acquisitions include Massive Entertainment in 2008, a multiplayer specialist currently working on unannounced projects; Nadeo in 2009, creator of the TrackMania franchise; and Quazal in 2010, who were responsible for the online component to Assassin’s Creed.
The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in Ubisoft’s second fiscal quarter of 2011.
Personally I believe it was bad for Ubisoft to purchase Howrse. It used to be a fun player friendly game to play. Now it has turned into a nazist favoritist game. Ubisoft is deducting karma from older players that have been around since day 1 that have never done anything to go against original game rules. Blocking their games for standing up for what they believe in and disallowing them from posting in the forums. If Ubisoft wants to own howrse they have to let it remain as it was before they took it over. with the taking this over they will loose thousands of loyal players that have been playing since 2007. Instead favoring newbies who probably will forget they even started playing the game and never play it past day 6. I am an original Howrse player. I was there before the corruptions of Ubisoft and all the fun things Owlient came up with. I am apart of what helped Howrse grow. Before they had a thousand players. I am choosing not to reveal my howrse name or email in fear of them deleting my account simply due to peaceful protesting. Note I have said nothing rude at all or even swore. Just stating what will happen if Ubisoft continues to run the game so differently from Owlient.
Personally I believe it was bad for Ubisoft to purchase Howrse. It used to be a fun player friendly game to play. Now it has turned into a nazist favoritist game. Ubisoft is deducting karma from older players that have been around since day 1 that have never done anything to go against original game rules. Blocking their games for standing up for what they believe in and disallowing them from posting in the forums. If Ubisoft wants to own howrse they have to let it remain as it was before they took it over. with the taking this over they will loose thousands of loyal players that have been playing since 2007. Instead favoring newbies who probably will forget they even started playing the game and never play it past day 6. I am an original Howrse player. I was there before the corruptions of Ubisoft and all the fun things Owlient came up with. I am apart of what helped Howrse grow. Before they had a thousand players. I am choosing not to reveal my howrse name or email in fear of them deleting my account simply due to peaceful protesting. Note I have said nothing rude at all or even swore. Just stating what will happen if Ubisoft continues to run the game so differently from Owlient.
I understand where you're coming from, but I also understand that whoever the owner of it is is the one who makes the changes and decisions. I started playing in 2009, though I quit and made a new account just recently. I agree with you, though, that it was horrible for Howrse to be sold… same thing happened to FooPets; used to be fun and friendly game, not to mention free to play. But once it was sold, it was converted to Pay to Play and they lost players until they had under 20,000. I eventually quit, it wasn't worth wasting my money on something dull and horrible. And now I fear that the same thing will happen to Howrse.
I understand where you're coming from, but I also understand that whoever the owner of it is is the one who makes the changes and decisions. I started playing in 2009, though I quit and made a new account just recently. I agree with you, though, that it was horrible for Howrse to be sold… same thing happened to FooPets; used to be fun and friendly game, not to mention free to play. But once it was sold, it was converted to Pay to Play and they lost players until they had under 20,000. I eventually quit, it wasn't worth wasting my money on something dull and horrible. And now I fear that the same thing will happen to Howrse.
I am a dedicated player, have over 750 days of seniority and buy passes. I was in many succesful breeding groups and contribute to the high standard arabians that are in the game today. Howrse was once a fun-orientated game that I was proud to play. It has become a cheap, boring game full of new players protesting about it being hard to start a game, they aren't getting enough, not being treated fairly etc. Well when I first started, I got my first horse, another horse similar to that and nothing else. My reserve was just under 1500e, and no, I did not get pegasi, trained horses, free BMI's, anything of the sort! We worked for what we have and we worked damn hard! The young players don't know anything about hard work! They got it all handed to them on a silver platter and continue to whine about not having enough money. At the end of your tutorial, you have 10k, for crying out loud!!!
Since Ubisoft bought the game, Ubisoft will watch it go to ruin. Howrse is not a place I wan't to waste my time on any longer.
750 days is a long time, over 2 years! I started from scratch, built my way up from the bottom. 1006th was my best ranking.
But I have given up. Ubisoft has made the game so ridiculously easy to play that there is no longer any point.
So I quit.
Thanks Ubisoft
Thanks a whole lot
I am a dedicated player, have over 750 days of seniority and buy passes. I was in many succesful breeding groups and contribute to the high standard arabians that are in the game today. Howrse was once a fun-orientated game that I was proud to play. It has become a cheap, boring game full of new players protesting about it being hard to start a game, they aren't getting enough, not being treated fairly etc. Well when I first started, I got my first horse, another horse similar to that and nothing else. My reserve was just under 1500e, and no, I did not get pegasi, trained horses, free BMI's, anything of the sort! We worked for what we have and we worked damn hard! The young players don't know anything about hard work! They got it all handed to them on a silver platter and continue to whine about not having enough money. At the end of your tutorial, you have 10k, for crying out loud!!! Since Ubisoft bought the game, Ubisoft will watch it go to ruin. Howrse is not a place I wan't to waste my time on any longer.
750 days is a long time, over 2 years! I started from scratch, built my way up from the bottom. 1006th was my best ranking.
But I have given up. Ubisoft has made the game so ridiculously easy to play that there is no longer any point.
So I quit.
Thanks UbisoftThanks a whole lot
I Play Czech howrse… 😉
And International, germany and other…
I am from czech republic 😉