Gamertell

They say that everyone has their price, well apparently Tom Clancy has found his, as he has signed away not just his entire universe that is based around his international hit books, but even his own name. And who did he sell out to? Well the French of all people.

Ubisoft announced March 20, 2008, that it has acquired all intellectual properties (IP) centered on and around the entire Tom Clancy universe. Ubisoft and Red Storm Entertainment (a subsidiary of Ubisoft), created by Tom Clancy back in 1996, have had a long-standing relationship when it comes to the development of video games based around the Clancy name. Hits such as the Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six franchises have been the principle titles published under Ubisoft for years now. Coming Fall 2008, Ubisoft is expanding the Clancy universe further with their original title, EndWar.

This buyout is total as Ubisoft will own all property rights to everything Clancy, from video games, films, TV and even the books. With the rights now under their control Ubisoft will not have to pay any royalty fees to Clancy for any use of his universe for all future endeavors, such as the rumored Clancy-based massively multiplayer online game (MMO).

There has been no official word on how much Tom Clancy was actually paid by Ubisoft but rumors are putting the deal somewhere around $31 million US dollars, or 20 million Euros. Cheap if you ask me.

Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot made this statement in a press release about Ubisoft’s buyout of the Clancy name: 

“The future of our industry lies in our capacity to create and develop brands that captivate consumers and that present a myriad of opportunities for the full spectrum of entertainment, be it video games, books, movies or other media. The Tom Clancy brand is recognized around the world for offering exciting video games, films and books. The most recent example of such value creation through brand management is the EndWar book, based on the video game story, which has been in the NY Times top 10 Paperback Mass Market Fiction bestseller list for the last four weeks. Capitalizing on the strong franchises that we’ve built over the past 10 years, we will take the Tom Clancy game brand to the next level of the global entertainment industry.”

Read [IGN] Also Read [Forbes]