Ubisoft has carried out another round of cuts as part of its seemingly endless restructuring process, sources have told GamesIndustry.biz. It is closing its studios in Winnipeg and Belgrade and proposing further changes in Barcelona and to its global publishing team. 380 roles are understood to be at risk.
GamesIndustry.biz understands that the company has proposed focusing Ubisoft Barcelona exclusively on the Rainbow Six franchise. Separately it has conducted layoffs across its global publishing organisation, which involved a number of jobs being lost in different offices. A total count of affected roles was not clear due to ongoing redundancy processes in different territories, although local sources claimed that 61 jobs were impacted in Barcelona.
Ubisoft Belgrade was opened in 2016 and served as a support studio working on a variety of the company’s titles, most recently Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Ubisoft Winnipeg opened in 2019 and most recently worked on Rainbow Six Mobile, following a stretch on the firm’s ill-fated free-to-play shooter XDefiant. The Barcelona studio – which is separate to Ubisoft Barcelona Mobile, based in the same city – was most recently credited on Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced.
Ubisoft has been making swingeing cuts for five years. In January it announced it was embarking on a “final” round of cost-cutting that would deliver €200 million in savings. The most recent financial results showed a sharp decline in revenue and net bookings, and the company said that it expected the current financial year to “represent a low point in our free cash flow trajectory,” citing costs associated with redundancies. The firm also has a very light release slate this year, headed by two remakes: Black Flag Resynced and the recently-announced Rayman Legends Retold.
