Ubisoft and Plaion are joining forces to bring games to retail
In a move that seems a little surprising in the modern day, Ubisoft and Plaion have announced that their European success is now coming down under as the two groups are joining forces for retail releases.
Ubisoft will still maintain all their other side of the business, so marketing activities, including public relations, social media, influencer partnerships, community engagement, and broader brand campaigns, Plaion will be handling the retail distribution to stores in Australia and New Zealand.
“We’re proud to expand our collaboration with Ubisoft into Australia and New Zealand. This move is a reflection of the trust we’ve built through our team’s performance in Europe, and we look forward to delivering the same high level of service and execution in these new markets.”
“PLAION has been a valued partner in the Benelux and Nordic regions, consistently showcasing their dedication to excellence, robust retail partnerships, and deep market knowledge. We are confident that their strong local team and well-established retail partnerships will be instrumental in driving our mutual success in the Australian and New Zealand market. We look forward to building on this solid foundation and achieving new milestones together.”
So, what does this mean for local gamers. In the grand scheme of things, not a lot. Instead of Ubisoft publishing a game like Rainbow Six Siege X on disc for PlayStation 5, it would be Plaion doing that, as an example.
This might be surprising in today’s age that one publisher, is bringing another publishers games to retail, but in the late 90s and early 2000s it was actually quite common. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was published in Australia by 2K, I have in my collection a copy of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind that was published by Ubisoft and even some Microsoft soft games for Nintendo DS published by THQ.
In any event, this shouldn’t impact things to greatly, Plaion are known to have a decent release of stock for their games and I can’t imagine that they will change that going forward for a partner release. The only point of query would be around Nintendo titles, as they were often republished by Ubisoft as codes after the first run, but not the Plaion titles.
