Ubisoft is in negotiations to buy three separate games firms for approximately €5 million each.

And the French publisher was even keen on buying US studio Cryptic, which was this week purchased by Atari.

Speaking at the UBS Annual Global Media Conference Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez said:

"We have about three deals within [the] five million euro range that we are negotiating. Most probably, one or two of them will be closed in the next three or four months."

Of MMO specialist Cryptic, Martinez added:

"We lost one deal which we were a bit mad [about]," he said. "We lost Cryptic; it's a US company that was taken by Atari...we were a bit disappointed."

Martinez also noted that review scores were not the be all and end all for the company, which has traditionally been seen as something of a critic’s darling.

He commented:

"To be honest, when Assassin's Creed [which sold five million] launched and got 82 percent, we were desperate, and we thought we were going to die.

"[But] if you look at our first Prince of Persia [Sands of Time], we thought it was going to do great, [but] it did two million, so we were kind of disappointed."

The CFO summed up: "It's not ratings that mean everything, but we think quality and innovation are the key."

Thanks to Gamasutra.