A hot potato: Ubisoft's many problems could soon get a lot worse. Five unions representing the company's employees in France have called for a massive international strike by all the firm's workers. The call is a response to Ubisoft's recent layoffs, game cancellations, and full-time return-to-office mandate.
Ubisoft announced last week that it will restructure its internal operations in the coming months, refocusing its strategy around open-world games, live-service titles, and player-facing generative AI. The changes include delays to seven projects and the cancellation of six others, among them Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
Ubisoft added that it was closing studios in Halifax and Stockholm, which means job losses. The company also initiated a Rupture Conventionnelle Collective, a voluntary mutual termination agreement that could involve up to 200 positions at its headquarters in France.
🇬🇧✊🌀 Ubisoft : enough is enough! Faced with the arbitrary decision of the CEO who doesn't even dare talking to employees anymore, unions are calling for a strike on February 10th, 11th and 12th.
– Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo (@stjv.fr) 28 January 2026 at 12:10
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Those employees not let go will have to work in the office full-time five days per week, with a limited number of annual remote work days on offer.
Unsurprisingly, Ubisoft's actions have not gone down well with workers' unions. In the wake of the restructuring announcement, the Solidaires Informatique called for a half-day strike, an end to the cost reduction plan, and expansion of remote work conditions. The union warned that this was an "initial response to the absurdity of management decisions."
Now, STJV, CFE-CGC, CGT, and Printemps Ecologique have joined Solidaries Infortmatique in calling for a three-day strike on February 10, 11, and 12 by Ubisoft staff – February 12 is the date that Ubisoft reveals its first quarterly financial report since the restructuring was announced.
The unions say Ubisoft workers only learned about the job cuts at the same time as the press, adding that none of the proposals had been discussed via the mandatory consultations with the unions and its representatives beforehand.
"We are promised autonomy for Creative Houses, but what about autonomy for employees? Five days of mandatory in-office work: we are treated like children who need to be supervised, while our management gets away with lies and breaking the law," Solidaries Infortmatique said in a statement.
The unions added that negotiations on remote work policy have been ongoing for over a year, and that an agreement has been in place since September in some studios.
"We're calling for a HALT to management's obsession with penny-pinching and worsening our working conditions," the Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo wrote. "It's time for a real accountability from company executives, starting from the top! Without the workers, and generous public funding, Ubisoft would never have been able to grow this much. WE are Ubisoft, and WE are shutting it down February 10th to 12th!"
It's noted that Ubisoft's Canadian studios are not unionized. Halifax had unionized – the first Ubisoft studio to do so in North America – but it was shut down 16 days later.
