Two of Ubisoft’s smaller studios, Ubisoft Winnipeg, and Ubisoft Belgrade, are being shuttered. Insider Gaming was first to break the news, but reports from Game Developer, and VGC have shed more light on the broader impact.
Winnipeg was mainly a support and tech studio, working on Ubisoft’s proprietary Anvil, and Snowdrop engines. Belgrade was another smaller co-developer that contributed to various projects such as Ghost Recon Wildlands, The Crew 2, Skull and Bones and others.
As part of the same decision, Ubisoft Barcelona will now only focus on developing and supporting Rainbow Six projects. This restructuring will also affect the company’s Global Publishing team, as per one report.
The cuts were announced internally, with some employees finding out Wednesday in a meeting with management. Overall, the decision is expected to leave around 380 people without a job.
The cuts have reportedly also impacted Ubisoft Montreal, one of the company’s highest-profile studios. One report said that the job losses have affected the Rainbow Six Siege development team, as well as several people working on Rainbow Six Siege Mobile.
This is the third round of layoffs at Ubisoft so far this year. In March, the publisher laid off over 100 people at Ghost Recon custodian studio Red Storm Entertainment. The studio has since shifted to supporting the wider Ubisoft apparatus across its proprietary Snowdrop engine, and other technical operations. It is no longer making its own games.
Earlier in the year, the company shuttered its Halifax and Stockholm studios in a massive, company-wide restructuring move that also saw headcount reductions at Ubisoft Abu Dhabi, Redlynx, and even Massive Entertainment.
Ubisoft announced a €1.16bn Tencent investment in October last year, which saw the establishment of a new subsidiary, Vantage Studios, that it said would focus on its biggest franchises: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six.
Since then, Ubisoft has embarked on a cost-cutting initiative as part of a company-wide effort to reorganise its teams and focus on its biggest money-makers.
Vantage has a complicated ownership within Ubisoft. Tencent owns a 25 percent stake, but creative and leadership decisions are handled by Christophe Derennes, and Charlie Guillemot, the son of Ubisoft CEO Yves. Teams within Vantage are said to have greater ownership over their projects, which is a break from Ubisoft’s longstanding centralised development model.
