Ubisoft to cut 380 jobs and shut down studios in Canada and Serbia, report claims

[DragonSlayer101]

Facepalm: Months after laying off at least 55 employees across two of its studios in Sweden, French video game publisher Ubisoft is reportedly cutting 380 more jobs, closing two studios in Canada and Serbia while downsizing another. The company had already announced the closure of its Canadian mobile game development studio, Ubisoft Halifax, in early January.

According to Insider Gaming, Ubisoft has informed employees via an internal communications post that a new restructuring plan will affect approximately 380 staff across its studios in the United States, Canada, Spain, and Serbia.

The report indicates that Ubisoft is shutting down its game development studios in Winnipeg and Belgrade, which will impact 65 and 100 employees, respectively. The company is also cutting 51 jobs at Ubisoft Barcelona and letting go an undisclosed number of employees at its global publishing headquarters in San Francisco.

In addition, more than 150 employees working on Rainbow Six Siege, Rainbow Six Siege Mobile, and an unannounced project at Ubisoft Montreal are reportedly being reassigned to other projects. Ubisoft says the move will simplify its operations, reduce overhead, and strengthen the organization in the long term.

Founded in 2016, Ubisoft Belgrade contributed to several popular titles, including The Crew 2, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, Riders Republic, and Skull & Bones. The Winnipeg studio opened in 2018, focusing on the development of technology for Ubisoft's game engines, Anvil and Snowdrop. It once employed more than 100 people.

Known for franchises such as Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, and the Tom Clancy's series, Ubisoft has experienced significant turmoil in recent years, including layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations. These include the cancellation of Tom Clancy's The Division Heartland, which was announced in 2024.

Other canceled projects in recent years include Immortals Fenyx Rising 2 and several unannounced titles, as part of multiple cost-cutting efforts that resulted in more than 1,700 job losses across its European and North American offices between 2022 and 2024.

At its peak, Ubisoft employed more than 20,000 people globally. However, repeated layoffs have led to over 5,000 redundancies in recent years, with headcount reportedly falling to around 15,000 following the latest cuts.

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Ubisoft to cut 380 jobs and shut down studios in Canada and Serbia, report claims

 

[pnntmp]

OK, let me guess, AI is taking jobs

Ubisoft has ~17 000 employees. 380 is about 2% of that.
It's worth mentioning that one year ago, the market cap of Ubisoft was twice as big. So Ubisoft lost half (50%) of its market cap, and laid off 2% of its employees as a result. Isn't that something enormously positive?

 

[m4a4]

OK, let me guess, AI is taking jobs

Ubisoft has ~17 000 employees. 380 is about 2% of that.
It's worth mentioning that one year ago, the market cap of Ubisoft was twice as big. So Ubisoft lost half (50%) of its market cap, and laid off 2% of its employees as a result. Isn't that something enormously positive?

This is yet another round of layoffs. If you're going to mention a bigger market cap from 1 year ago, you might want to also tally up all the layoffs since then (instead of just this singular one).

Which, only a few years ago they were at a peak of ~21,000 employees (meaning they're down ~25%).

 

[pnntmp]

This is yet another round of layoffs. If you're going to mention a bigger market cap from 1 year ago, you might want to also tally up all the layoffs since then (instead of just this singular one).

Which, only a few years ago they were at a peak of ~21,000 employees (meaning they're down ~25%).

OK, fair point, let's say "a few years ago" is 5 years ago (note that AI wasn't a thing 5 years ago). During that period, Ubisoft market cap decreased ~12x, it's 12 ***times*** less valuable today than it was 5 years ago. And for that 5 year period they only laid off 25% of their employees! That's even more enormously positive, isn't it?

 

[m4a4]

OK, fair point, let's say "a few years ago" is 5 years ago (note that AI wasn't a thing 5 years ago). During that period, Ubisoft market cap decreased ~12x, it's 12 ***times*** less valuable today than it was 5 years ago. And for that 5 year period they only laid off 25% of their employees! That's even more enormously positive, isn't it?

The numbers look better, sure (never said they weren't or didn't).

Buuuut that's assuming market cap actually means something for the day-to-day operations of the company. I will acknowledge that a lot of layoffs in the past years by big tech companies have been because of covid bloat, but Ubisoft shuttering so many individual studios over the years doesn't look good for them at all. A 25% shrink over a few year isn't very positive.

At the least, I would look at net income for how positive things look for them. Market cap is just how confident investors are (and they aren't very confident, especially after their latest game was hyped up but a disappointment).

 

[Eldrach]

OK, fair point, let's say "a few years ago" is 5 years ago (note that AI wasn't a thing 5 years ago). During that period, Ubisoft market cap decreased ~12x, it's 12 ***times*** less valuable today than it was 5 years ago. And for that 5 year period they only laid off 25% of their employees! That's even more enormously positive, isn't it?

Ubisoft will suffer more layoffs - Their stock value has dropped to a point where they will continue to shrink unless they release something that is so immensely popular it will change their market value.

Black Flag Resynched will be a small boon, but it IS a remake of a game people has been playing for over 10 years.
Assassins Creed Hexe had some great ideas, but they seem to be scrapped - first AC game that was going to try something entirely different akin to Dishonored, but they just can't let go of their old formula.

On top of that - the head bafoon is very fond of jumping on every new technology that could potentially bring in cash, like the stupid NFT thing they did..They need new management or they will buckle after a stint of trying to make games with AI or something else that will just fail out of the door

 

[Theinsanegamer]

OK, let me guess, AI is taking jobs

Ubisoft has ~17 000 employees. 380 is about 2% of that.
It's worth mentioning that one year ago, the market cap of Ubisoft was twice as big. So Ubisoft lost half (50%) of its market cap, and laid off 2% of its employees as a result. Isn't that something enormously positive?

No, because Ubi is still way too big. Given their current output, they need to cut down to a handful of studios and maybe ~1500 people.

 

[Gars]

They kill their own games
so, they shot themselves leg

they need to pull out their head from where its is right now, and cut it ceremonially in publics

 

[RudyBob]

Why Canada? It's a great place for business. Just ask the PM/

 

[NumberNine]

They're not failing quickly enough for me.

 

[Axeia]

OK, let me guess, AI is taking jobs

It's hard to pay staff when you release flop after flop.

I wouldn't say this about most companies, but in Ubisofts case replacing people with AI might actually work out for the better. The people they have excel at making poor decisions.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

They kill their own games
so, they shot themselves leg

they need to pull out their head from where its is right now, and cut it ceremonially in publics

Well hey, we DID get used to not owning their games!

 

[toooooot]

They dug up a treasure with AC series. It was quite appealing to bring a player int o various real locations throughout history and introduce to real people that once lived there.
They did not need to ruin their product, they did, though.
I do not doubt for a seconds that they had really problematic people, specifically men who behaved like
pigs to their female coworkers. So, to fix that, they began to hire progressive activists, a lot of women who only care about their progressive religion and hate people whom the company sells their products.
That was a disastrous idea. They did not need to believe it, they could watch other companies that introduced this virus and kill their business. With these people, Ubi was doomed to fall hard. They are falling. And the worst thing is they cannot get rid of the people who will never help make the games people want to play because they are women, minorities, lgbt. They will keep sucking blood from Ubi like parasites till it dies. An industry where passion for the art means so much for success, it is the worst mistake to hire people who hate art. They hate everything gaming, real gaming, was. They see it as wicked evil stuff that must be fixed. And they have been fixing it for decade, losing more and more customers. When they were working on AC Shadows, they desperately needed to make it right. Well, with their new and improved employees, they did the opposite. Yasuke was like a spit in the faces of racist chuds and haters. I have no doubt it gave them insane pleasure watching how angry AC fans were.
They can only destroy art, they are a disaster that should not be allowed to work in gaming industry.