On the morning of March 19, Ubisoft’s Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer, Marie-Sophie de Waubert, sent a company-wide email to staff announcing that Ubisoft would stop game development at Red Storm Entertainment, resulting in the layoff of 105 employees.

The email stated that the decision was part of Ubisoft’s global cost-reduction plan and that the “decision follows a careful review of our operational and strategic priorities in the challenging content we’re navigating through.” Less than 24 hours later, teams were scrambling to remedy the fallout from this “careful review” to keep what Ubisoft has deemed some of its critical game releases on track.

One such release is the next mainline Ghost Recon game, codenamed OVR, set to take the franchise back to its roots as a first-person tactical shooter with a single-player and multiplayer component.

According to sources familiar with Ubisoft’s plans, OVR is currently considered a “crucial release” for Ubisoft’s upcoming fiscal year, alongside the slated summer release of the yet-to-be-announced Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Remake.

Yet, despite the game being internally marked as critical to Ubisoft’s success, OVR has already been scaled back considerably from its original plans, with those working on it fearing that the latest closure of Red Storm Entertainment’s game development division could lead to further descoping or delays. That’s because dozens of people at Red Storm were working on the project, and the void that they will leave will be difficult to fill with the right people.

Those affected by last week’s layoffs at Red Storm are currently protected under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), which requires employers to give employees 60 days’ notice of planned closings and/or mass layoffs of more than 100 employees. Even though their final day is set for May 18th, sources say affected employees had their access to Ubisoft’s systems revoked immediately after the announcement. Some employees were then asked the next day to return to their projects during the WARN period, who were mainly those working on OVR and a Watch Dogs Legion director’s cut.

At the time of Red Storm Entertainment’s gaming division’s closure, the team was working on approximately 10 projects at Ubisoft, including the hotly anticipated Splinter Cell Remake – another game at Ubisoft that has had its issues and was said to be well over budget, according to people familiar.

Red Storm’s gaming division’s closure is the latest example of how Ubisoft’s wholesale policy of saving money by shuttering entire studios could lead to more problems, and, unfortunately, it’s hard to see a path forward. Red Storm was in Ubisoft’s new ‘Creative Network’, but it was fundamental in keeping some projects on track, just like the other 19 studios support studios.

A Sticky Situation

Layoffs at any studio are devastating for those involved, and with Ubisoft still planning further cost-cutting measures totaling another 100 million euros as its “third and final” implementation, thousands more layoffs at the French publisher are likely yet to come.

Speaking to dozens of current and former Ubisoft employees over the last couple of months, the consensus is that the studio-targeted closures and layoffs are doing more harm than good for Ubisoft and its games. As much as layoffs suck, those I spoke to argued that the layoffs don’t feel targeted. Instead, Ubisoft seems to look at a studio, its costs, and then pull the trigger without any foresight into how it could affect projects in its pipeline.

Those I spoke to argued that Ubisoft still needs to start from the top down, aiming to assign the right people to the right jobs.

Unfortunately, all of this seems like a lose-lose situation for Ubisoft. They need to save money, but refuse to look at the root cause, or at the very least, are in denial about what is causing the issues in the first place. Studio closures on a mass scale are creating voids in projects, leading to further delays, scope reductions, and higher budgets – the very thing that got them in this mess in the first place.

It’s almost like lessons aren’t being learned, but is that surprising at this point?

Ubisoft was asked for comment on all of the above and, at the time of publication, had not responded.

Both current and former employees can contact me securely and anonymously at [email protected] if you would like to weigh in on current events or share your story.

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