Ubisoft is the latest video game company to be hit by another wave of layoffs.
As first reported Bloomberg and later independently confirmed by IGN, 45 employees at the Assassin’s Creed publisher’s locations in San Francisco and Cary, North Carolina, were hit with layoffs yesterday. Those affected will receive severance packages and career assistance, though further details on what those offers include were not disclosed.
“Yesterday, Ubisoft San Francisco and Red Storm Entertainment informed their teams of a restructuring that has resulted in the departure of 45 Ubisoft employees,” a Ubisoft spokesperson said in a statement. “This difficult but necessary decision was made to align the studios’ organizations with their future business and growth goals. We are committed to providing comprehensive support to those impacted, including severance and career assistance, and thank them for their many contributions to Ubisoft.”
This is the second change to the Red Storm team this summer, the first coming in May when Ubisoft announced that work was continuing on its free-to-play spin-off game, Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland has been canceledAt the time, the publisher called the move a “difficult decision,” but moved those development team members to other projects, like XDefiant and Rainbow Six. It’s unclear how many members of the Red Storm team were affected by yesterday’s layoffs.
Red Storm’s portfolio includes a number of notable Ubisoft titles from the past few decades, including a number of Tom Clancy and Far Cry titles. The studio also recently developed a VR-only title, Assassin’s Creed Nexus, which launched last year. Ubisoft’s San Francisco office has developed titles in the Rocksmith series, as well as South Park: The Fractured but Whole. It is currently working on XDefiant and Rocksmith+.
Last year, Ubisoft also laid off a number of employees in separate cases, 60 people affected by the disease in May AND another 124 in November. This is part of a trend of industry-wide cuts that have affected thousands of game developers in the past year, with recent examples including layoffs at NetherRealm Studios, Take Two Interactive, Humble Games, Interactive BehaviorAND Bungie.
You can read more about What Dark Souls creator Formsoftware is doing to combat layoffs as the industry continues to reel from job cuts. You can also find out why some developers believe games are facing an unprecedented round of layoffs Here.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor to IGN. He began writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work on outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to follow him on Twitter @MikeCripe.
