Ubisoft closes two studios and lays off up to 380 employees

Ubisoft is closing two more studios, in Winnipeg and Belgrade, and making further layoffs as it seeks to reduce costs and keep the lights on. The moves could put up to 380 people out of work. The cuts appear to have hit the Barcelona studio especially hard: 51 people will be let go, a figure programmer Mataoui Chakib Souleyman said on LinkedIn represents 28% of that studio’s workforce.

Barcelona, which had worked on Assassin’s Creed, The Crew, Ghost Recon and Immortals: Fenyx Rising, will now shift its focus exclusively to the Rainbow Six franchise. The closures come amid a wider restructuring as the founding Guillemot family fights to retain control while hundreds, and probably thousands, of rank-and-file employees lose their jobs.

Ubisoft is also investing heavily in generative AI despite pushback and has reorganized internally into five “creative houses”; the largest, Vantage Studios, is headed by Charlie Guillemot.

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