Ubisoft has announced that its Creative House 2 business unit, which houses Tom Clancy’s The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell alongside “new original IP including March of Giants”, will henceforth be known as Massive Entertainment, adopting the 29-year-old brand of the Swedish studio that originated the Divison franchise.
The new Massive Entertainment will, like the other Creative Houses, have “clear responsibility for the development and long-term growth of its brands”. The unit had originally been dedicated to “competitive and co-op shooters” prior to the acquisition of March of Giants from Amazon.
“Starting today, development teams responsible for these franchises in Montréal, Paris, Sweden, and Toronto will operate under the Massive Entertainment brand,” the company said in a statement, “bringing together their creative and technology expertise to shape its future, grow these franchises and craft challenging experiences for dedicated player communities.”
Massive Entertainment is lead by veteran executive Christoph Hartmann, who joined as General Manager in June having departed Amazon Game Studios. He previously founded and lead 2K Games. The firm announced last week that Natalie Francis was joining as studio manager of the Malmo office after holding senior roles at Avalanche Studios and DICE.
Massive was previously a standalone studio in Malmo, Sweden, launched in 1997 and acquired by Ubisoft in 2008 after it was sold off by Activision following its purchase of Vivendi. The studio previously made its name with Ground Control and World In Conflict, before delivering the Division franchise, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws. It developed the Snowdrop engine widely used across several Ubisoft titles, and was described as working on “an unannounced innovative tech project” when Ubisoft laid off staff at Massive and Ubisoft Stockholm in January.
“Massive Entertainment has always been defined by passion, ambition and incredible talent, and our focus now is on what comes next,” said Hartmann. “Bringing our teams together under one identity gives us the opportunity to combine the creative energy and expertise across Montréal, Paris, Sweden and Toronto to shape the next generation of these iconic franchises, create new games and IPs, and push our craft and technology forward.”
The firm announced it would move to the Creative Houses structure in late 2025 and confirmed the details in January 2026. The firm has now confirmed leaders for all except Creative House 4, following the confirmation of Julien Bares as General Manager of Houses 3 and 5 and Thomas A as GM of centralised production resource Creative Network.
The current structure is:
- Vantage Studios (joint venture with Tencent)
- Co-CEOs: Christophe Derennes and Charlie Guillemot
- Brands: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
- Barcelona, Montreal Vantage, Quebec, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Sofia
- Massive Entertainment
- General Manager: Christoph Hartmann
- Brands: Tom Clancy’s The Division, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, March of Giants, unspecified new IP
- Studios: Paris, Massive/Malmo, Montreal, Toronto
- Creative House 3
- General Manager: Julien Bares (alongside Creative House 5)
- Brands: Brawlhalla, For Honor, Riders Republic, Skull and Bones, The Crew
- Studios: Blue Mammoth, Ivory Tower, Montreal
- Creative House 4
- General Manager: Not yet announced
- Brands: Anno, Beyond Good and Evil, Heroes of Might and Magic, Prince of Persia, Rayman
- Studios: Mainz, Milan, Montpelier, Nadeo
- Creative House 5
- General Manager: Julien Bares (alongside Creative House 3)
- Brands: Growtopia, Hasbro portfolio
- Studios: Abu Dhabi, Barcelona Mobile, Ketchapp, Kalibri Games, Paris, Ubisoft Mobile Games, Ubisoft Paris Mobile
- Creative Network
- General Manager: Thomas Andrén
- Purpose: Central production support
- Studios: Annecy, Berlin, Bordeaux, Chengdu, Da Nang, Dusseldorf, Kyiv/Odessa/Warsaw, Paris, Pune, Manila, RedLynx, Red Storm, Reflections, Romania, Shanghai, Singapore
The initial move to Creative Houses came alongside delays and cancellations of multiple games and what it described as a “final” round of cost-cutting following years of underperformance and a protracted restructuring that has seen the closure of studios in Belgrade, Halifax, Leamington, Stockholm and Winnipeg along with layoffs across its worldwide operations. The firm would not confirm if that process was complete.