Ubisoft Closes Two Studios And Will Reportedly Lay Off Hundreds Of Employees

Ubisoft bankruptcy speedrun any% going well I see

I would love to see Ubisoft close down for good. Such a hideous company.

Ugh, that's a shame.

I suppose it's "die a member of the Assassin's Order, or live long enough to become a Knight Templar" for UbiSoft.

Yikes. Ubisoft is far from my favorite publisher, but I hate to see so many more good people losing their jobs this year. 😓

Ubisoft has done many game decisions which weren't good, I feel bad for those affected by this but this studio probably isn't a great environment. Hate to see how the gaming industry has been hurt this year by layoffs.

I hate to see working class devs and other boots-on-the-ground workers lose their job for any reason. I hope they find good work at a better company soon...
because holy smokes Ubisoft is less of a sinking ship, and more of a ship that has burst into flames after crashing into an iceberg and is sinking into the Bermuda Triangle. They are reaping what they've sown, and the games business will be better off once Ubisoft is shut down completely.

I have a feeling that alleged Rayman project won't be seeing the light of day any time soon

While every other company is trying to form a monopoly and invest billions of dollars into hostile corporate takeovers, Nintendo should hire every one of these employees when they inevitably get laid off by their CEO who mismanaged the acquisition.

I honestly didn't know there was a Ubisoft presence here in Sydney.

Googling them, they are Ultimo. A VERY snooty suburb right next door to the CBD. Probably paying 3 or 4 times what they should be for rent if they went a little further out into the suburbs.

Why am I not surprised by this at this point. Ubisoft has been on the rocky side of things for the past couple of years now so it's not surprising seeing this from them and it just highlights the majority of issues that i have with the games industry as a whole and I hope that they go out of business for being such a horrible company as a whole.

For me they peaked at Blood Dragon, rayman legends, and those hand drawn game plus Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. other than that, they can go away.

@N8tiveT3ch Princess of persia the lost crown was also a surprise hit from them but yeah I'd say that ubisoft hit their prime during the good days of Rayman .

@Nintendomatt64 oh yeah I forgot about that game. I need to play that game. Thanks for the reminder.

I didn't even know Ubisofr had a Sydney office. San Francisco... Those are the guys that made Separate Butt Whole. Guess they've been doing support duty since.

So if Ubisoft just giving up on Japan now if they're closing their Osaka office?

@Edu23XWiiU @Judgedean

(1/2)

It's funny because if you look at Ubisoft, ActiVision, or even Disney, the companies that virtue signal the hardest to flaunt how "Progressive" they are are always the ones that have a deeply prejudiced history. Of course a company as historically racist as Disney or as exploitative of women as Ubisoft and ActiVision are going to preach diversity, equity, and inclusivity because it's a convenient moral shield they can hide behind in a vain PR attempt to absolve themselves of their past transgressions. It's disingenuous, and I think people are starting to see through it.

These companies have never had a moral compass and have always just done what they perceive to be socially acceptable, so why should we trust them to make changes for the better? "Misogyny isn't cool anymore? Well, I guess we'll just practice misandry instead." That doesn't solve the problem and just replaces one form of discrimination with another. It's a never-ending cycle. This is a problem with society as a whole, as people just jump on whatever bandwagon everyone else is currently on, regardless of who it hurts.

Life is a lot more nuanced than that. Things aren't as black-and-white as people make them out to be. As a white guy who lives in a dying coal mining community in the heart of Appalachia, where poverty and drug addiction run rampant and my people are stereotyped as inbred trash, initiatives like affirmative action just makes it all the harder for people like me to get a good education and a job and escape this heck hole.

DEI isn't a solution--it's just replacing one problem with another problem.

(2/2)

That said, I don't know how much that has to do with Ubisoft's current situation; they aren't going broke from being "woke," but rather from a myriad of poor business decisions. Releasing average to mediocre games that are really expensive to make, dedicating a significant amount of resources to fruitless projects like NFT's, hurting their consumer trust with unfinished products and microtransactions...

Although I have many qualms with modern-day Liberalism, that isn't the reason any of these companies are struggling--including Disney. Maybe a very, very small reason, but not the main reason. I don't know of anyone who has canceled their Disney+ subscription over politics, for example. But, they keep churning out offensively uninspired live-action sequels, buying out all these other studios and not knowing what to do with them, and having PR disasters like the Disney+ free trial acting as a liability waiver for Disney World.

Look at Nintendo's downfall during the Wii U era and their resurgence to popularity in 2017. What changed wasn't that Nintendo got more or less political; for whatever reason, they just completely disregarded the will of consumers and started churning out garbage products for a few years. That's all Ubisoft, ActiVision, and Disney need to do--they need to say, "Hey guys, remember when our products were actually GOOD?"

At the end of the day, Liberals will voice their distain toward what Chick Fil-A stands for, but most of them still eat there. Conservatives can get angry at the NFL and claim they won't be tuning into any more games, but most of them still do. And J. K. Rowling can face major scrutiny, but no amount of boycotting could keep Hogwarts Legacy from smashing sales records. Most people aren't going to take a moral stand if it means giving up their favorite things. If I didn't shop somewhere because I disagreed with their politics, I'd have nowhere left to shop.

But when Disney's movies or Ubisoft's games or ActiVision's games are just objectively bad? Yeah, that's what will hurt your business. If you can stay the best at whatever it is you do, the consumer will turn a blind eye to almost anything--i.e., our phones and clothes being produced in a sweat shop.

I guess Ubisoft just has to get used to not owning their studios.

arguments about woke=broke are so cherry picked, like is that why BG3 is doing so "bad"? as far as i can tell theyre just making mediocre and buggy games no one wants to play

Ubisoft will soon be Ubigone.

@boxyguy People simply want to project their own insecurities and get angry at the silliest of things, and act like some of those things are the cause.

Here's a serious idea for Ubisoft. Make an Assassin's Creed game with Bullfrog from Captain Laserhawk. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-OYzfgd3YoU

@somnambulance The majority of the devs working on Shadows have never worked on a video game before according to Ubisoft. Feel it's pretty safe to say it'll bomb considering the previous devs could only put out games that peaked at Above Average the past decade, and they had experience.

Ah, Ubisoft...
Not surprised.

X defiant shouldn't of focused on skins and battle passes and should of focused on gameplay balancing, maps and guns ..but yetttttt they think everyone plays these because they want the next overwatch or fortnite.. good riddance tired of trying out these crap games only to be disappointed... but cod does need some good competition as the lame skins and battlepasses ruin the frickin experience

How the mighty have fallen……very, very hard and I’m here for it!

I hope all impacted land on their feet. Still looking forward to picking up AC Shadows next year!

Always weird seeing folks that decry layoffs suddenly cheer for them when they don’t like the company.

@Teksette Hod you know they are good people?

This is exceptionally poor journalism. Way to capitalize on the click bait while leaving out any real details.

Ubisoft is a huge company of 45 studios and roughly 21,000 employees.

The San Francisco office works primarily on Rocksmith+, South Park, and XDefiant.

The Osaka office works with the Smurfs, CSI, Gravity Falls, and Rocksmith+.

Rocksmith+ was released in 2022 and is a HUGE FLOP. overwhelming negative reviews and a subscription based service.

XDefiant was released in May 2024 and is an arena shooter… very similar to Concord. It was never released on Steam.

Shutting down these studios seems like a smart thing to do.

There’s a typo in your last sentence. It says ‘targets’ when I think you meant ‘quality’.

Always sad to hear about studios shutting down. But in this case it’s barely a surprise, and I have a feeling this is just the start of it. Their reputation is beyond fixing.

@Farts_Ahoy
XDefiant is a Call of Duty-style arcade shooter, not an arena shooter.

Unlike Concord which flopped from the very beginning, XDefiant actually had a large number of players at launch and decent player reception. The fact that it is going to be shut down anyways is a testament to how poorly managed the game and Ubisoft as a whole is.

lol! Sucks to suck, Ubislop.

ngl, this is one of those companies I would like to see go bankrupt.

Always a pleasure seeing a falling titan in real time. Really hoping Assassins creed shadows doesn’t pull them out of the rut. I’d like to see their IPs sold to companies who would use them especially splinter cell.

@Poco_Lypso But Rayman tho... 🥺👉👈

Ubisoft had a significant fall of grace occur for awhile now and 2025 doesn’t look like the bleeding will stop for them.

@Not_Soos never got into rayman (never played tbh). Only ubi games I got are the mario games... i caved in... last proper ubigame I bought was before the og Assassins creed released. In other words, I disliked ubi long before the went woke and slop

@Poco_Lypso

If you have a PlayStation with a PSN subscription, you can download Rayman Legends for free. It was also on sale in the last eShop sale for dirt cheap, like $10 or maybe even just $5. I highly recommend it, especially if you're a fan of Mario. It was my introduction to Rayman, and it's my favorite 2D platformer of all-time. I love it more than Tropical Freeze or Mario Wonder or any number of games in the genre. It also has a Mario costume for Rayman and a Luigi costume for another character, Globox, which you unlock super early into the game if you're playing on Switch or Wii U.

It has an incredibly gorgeous hand-drawn art style that, even 10 years later, still holds up and has only been outdone by maybe Cuphead. There's also an insane amount of content, as the game has pretty much every level from the previous title. Rayman Legends, remastered in it. That's 10 worlds of content and over 100 levels. The controls are perfect; it's one of the few games I've played where even the underwater levels are a delight as it just feels buttery smooth to swim around.

I really can't sing this game's praises enough. I hope you check it out someday!

@JohnnyMind Thank you so much! 🙂 I always appreciate the validation from others, as sometimes I feel like I'm just wasting mine and everyone else's time with obnoxiously long comments that run the risk of getting deleted by the admins for getting too sociopolitical. It always makes me happy to know it resonated with somebody.

Well, turns out if you make games based on a few people's political agenda it doesn't turn out too good for you.

Thanks to @Farts_Ahoy for a rare smart commentary.
Ubisoft is massive, has a lot of studios, employees, and IPs.
They're in a bad situation because of their politics (Ubi Connect, Microtransaction, NFT, etc...).
Better not talking about sexual harassment or things like that, nobody knows if it was rare cases or not, like in a lot of companies. Reading people being happy about the fall of Ubi just because it's a giant is painful. So easy to get happy when you're not concerned.
It's an enterprise that needs to be restructured. The game developement is a priority.
They do good games most of the time. The reason people say they're mediocre is because those games look the same in their structure, or don't feel new, and are bugged from the beggining. Those games need to restart with more soul inside, and carefully developped, until the end.
Ubisoft needs to live again, not dying. Just a matter of cycle. they took bad decision over this decade, and they need to focus on what could help them becoming anew a great enterprise.
Layoffs are unevitable, before restructuring and employing anew. That's the same cycle for everything in life, so why bashing Ubisoft ?
I know why. Mankind is snarky, it's easier than thinking of what could be done for the best.
I'm not fluent in English, sorry.

@Not_Soos
I've said before you are one of the users here I have the most time for. I find your inputs interesting and well articulated and although I don't always align with you, I get better insights into our conflicting opinions thanks to your honest writing. I think we have similar mindsets and values shaped by very different environments.

Good to see you are a fellow Rayman Legends champion to boot!

@AJWolfTill @JohnnyMind

(1/2)

Thank you both! I truly believe everybody has a shared human experience that makes us more alike than we are different. But unfortunately, many people are unwilling to look for that common ground. I've found in my personal observations (but I feel like it should be common sense, really), that the more you insult and act morally superior to someone, the more they will just double-down in their pre-conceived biases.

Going off of this, I've also observed that--more often than not--people are not radicalized by the party they identify with; rather, extremism is often a rebuttal against what they perceive as a hostile attack from the other side against their core values and beliefs. In other words, people on the far-Right aren't pushed there by others on the Right, but rather by those on the far-Left and vice-versa. Like the law in physics about "every action having an equal but opposite reaction," but applied to people. Fascists turn people into Communists and Communists turn people into Fascists.

So when I'm weighing in on controversial subjects, I try to choose my words carefully. For example, I always put the word "woke" in quotation marks, because although I have somewhat socially Conservative views, I think "woke" is: (1) a buzzword, and if you rely too heavily on those, it can make you look like you're in an echo chamber and devoid of original thought to the person you're debating, but more importantly (2) it's a derogatory word that elicits a strong negative emotional reaction from the other side. So, I'll use a word like that because the meaning behind it is widely understood, but I think the quotes help to put distance between myself and the word so as to say, "hey, I'm saying this only because it's common vernacular and not because I'm aiming to insult you."

How can you expect someone to listen to what you have to say and respect your opinion if you aren't willing to offer them thay same courtesy in return?

You might also notice I start sentences with "I think," "I feel" "Often," "Usually," etc. a lot, because I think another problem is that people often erroneously believe that their argument is infallible. Our culture teaches us to use definitive language if you want to make your argument seem credible. If I wrote a college essay and used that kind of doubtful phrasing, would get a worse grade.

But I think (lol) that saying "I think" illustrates that I'm willing to admit that I don't know anything with 100% certainty and am open to earnestly listening to opposing viewpoints and potentially change my mind. I think the world would be a much better place if politicians and scholars and even just everyday people weren't conditioned to believe they have to put on this front that they are infallible to be taken seriously--that saying "I don't know" or "I'm not sure" or "you may be right" doesn't signify a lack of intelligence or inability to lead. It doesn't mean you're indecisive, just that you're capable of introspection and growth.

My aim is never to get people to agree with me, so much as it is to bridge the gap in our incredibly divided culture and come to a mutual respect and understanding. To get people to say, "Well, my core values haven't changed, but maybe I should reconsider cutting off my friends and family whose values don't always align with mine."

@AlexUbel
I like to think that the majority of people in the world are good, worthy, talented folk, just trying to live and love and prosper like anyone else. Good people may have the misfortune to live under bad governments, or work for bad companies.

(2/2)

Maybe I need to start a blog or a podcast or something. I have all these ideas I want to convey but I don't really have an outlet outside of Nintendo Life. (I did start a YouTube gaming channel, but that's mostly for entertainment purposes and not the same kind of audience.) I've even thought about writing a manifesto on what I like to call "radical pacivism."

I've always been a deep thinker, but as someone who has long suffered from debilitating OCD and agoraphobia, I've had a lot of time on my hands while cooped up inside to sit and think about things in ways that the average person probably doesn't have the time to with their busy schedules.

If I can get my ideas out there and maybe in some small way help people get along and quell the tensions that make it feel like we're on the brink of a civil war sometimes, then I'll have found meaning through my suffering and it will have all been worth it.

When a company starts to aim at the modern audience, it is hard for me to trust them, so I just try to ignore their products as much as possible.

Of course I hope that they will find their way back.

oh get outta here oobey/yoobey soft

@Teksette Fair enough. Also, great way to look at life.

I'm at least glad to see that Ubisoft Milan survived. I love the Mario + Rabbids games.

@Edu23XWiiU Right, first time in human history, a company goes under and who do you blame; wokeness? The great depression, that was because of wokeness too, huh? 🙄

The success of Assassin's Creed pushed Ubisoft toward profit-driven complacency, adopting a cookie-cutter approach to production across all their games. Creativity was lost and greed won out as corporate focus on annual releases superseded gameplay innovation and quality ignoring consumer feedback. The video game industry thrives on innovation, not formulaic repetition. Sorry, not sorry Ubisoft.

@Not_Soos
Let me know if you do start something as I'll follow it and discuss there. Clearly you need a more fitting outlet for some of your thoughts than here.
Sorry about your agoraphobia and OCD although clearly they have made you a very empathetic and introspective person, traits you can hopefully use for good.

That picture made me laugh xD

Now tell us how it's our fault for not understanding your games and or us being racist/misogynistic/sexist/elitist/etc., etc., etc.

Been boycotting them for years and don't have a single regret. They used to be good, but they turned into something hideous...

@The_Spanner I love your comment, hahaha!

It's pretty ridiculous that @Not_Soos is continuously allowed to post off-topic political comments like this where it doesn't belong. "far-right", "woke", "fascists"; these shouldn't be words anybody should be reading on a website regarding Nintendo games. But constantly, especially in the last few weeks, this user has been pushing the envelope and saying these thing.

@Not_Soos You're absolutely right, they're changing one evil for another, and the ones who propose inclusivity, are extremely exclusive, and end condemning you, if you don't agree with their believes, and also, end up alienating everyone around them, and these companies, have done that with their consumers, by hiring activists, instead of developers and creatives, who actually have the best interest in the audience they should be appealing. This is the problem that Ubisoft has. Their shenanigans behind the scenes, by hiring people under DEI management, has led them to this spot. If you see the strike that the Ubisoft employees did in Paris a few months ago, it looked more like an abedecedary collective parade, than an actual strike. This all started with Tencent acquiring a stake at Ubisoft, and they brought in all the DEI thing with them, causing entire teams to leave Ubisoft, because of that witch hunt they did, for the sexual misconduct allegations made. Interestingly enough, all those people that were fired by the people that Tencent brought in, were inmediately hired by Tencent, so that they could work in their fully owned studios. Apparently, the whole situation that Ubisoft is now, has been done on purpose by Tencent and the Guillemot family, to buy Ubisoft by scraps, and make the company, private. That's what happens when they bring people in, that have nothing to do with games, but only want to push politics, no matter what. Nintendo's case with the Wii U, is not even comparable. The console was poorly marketed, but Nintendo still produced quality software on it, which is clearly showcased with the sales Wii U re-releases that are on Switch, and have outsold their original releases by a large margin. I'm sorry to hear that you're having a rough time, dude, we all normal folk, we're going through rough patches, but, everything will get better soon!

@Thief well, all those words can be used to describe the people handling western game companies, why try to cover the sun with a hand?

@PROPS In the case of Ubisoft, that's so very true. If you want another term for it, it's management problems.

@Edu23XWiiU

Thank you. I manage my OCD much better now than I used to. I spent about a year in therapy in 2021, and then I started medicating, which completely changed my life. I'm significantly happier now than I used to be. Many days can still be a struggle, but I would say I have more good days than bad, whereas before I started medicating, I would say 90 percent of the time life felt like a living hell from 2015, when my symptoms got really bad, to 2020.

I'm really grateful for the progress I've made, as I now genuinely love life again and am happy to be here. I'm not 100% back to where I want to be, but I hope to keep working toward improvement. I also hope I can help raise awareness about obsessive-compulsive disorder, which is a very misunderstood condition. I think most people--myself included for a very long time--think of OCD as just a personality quirk, someone who is a "neat freak." But that isn't an accurate representation at all.

One of the things that kept me going in my darkest hour was the thought that someday I'll be able to help others that are going through this. If not for that mindset, and also my religious faith, I don't want to think about what might have happened. I also had a strong support system from loving family, which is a big blessing. But you're right that things can and will get better; I'm living proof of that, and I want to share that message with others. 🙂

@Edu23XWiiU Because it's very tiring to have these political discussions in gaming spaces, especially one based around Nintendo. And this guy continuously brings up things like Trump and "woke" talking points - all the whole acknowledging that these are indeed against the rules but continues to do so anyway.

Frankly, I think he should be suspended for a week or something. He knows the rules but continues to break them, bringing unnecessary political discussion. There are other spaces he can go to have those discussions, this isn't one of them. When it reaches a point where he is telling us who he voted for in the latest election, enough is enough.

I cry for the workers, but rejoice for the ones who go on to work on titles they are actually passionate about.

The industry is healing

We got two great Prince of Persia titles this year (although The Rogue Prince of Persia was not developed by Ubisoft), but other than that, I haven't played a good Ubisoft game since Rayman Legends. Still, sucks to see people getting laid off.

Ohhhhh wellll.

They were exploding with profits when they made casual, family friendly games on the DS & 3DS. Now all they want to make is violent garbage and they go bankrupt. Hmm.

@Ryu_Niiyama
EDIT: Nevermind my reply, I misunderstood the word "decry" in your comment. You can dismiss my reply if you want.

To be fair, I'm only glad for layoffs when it's for people who make the bad decisions or getting rich at the cost of their developers and people whose opinion doesn't matter for such things that sink a game (Yves Gillmont, Bobby Kotick).

But who am I kidding? Those will always find a way into another company, I mean, how has Phil Harrison been around as long as he has?
Either that or they're so rich after exiting a company they can retire.

Layoffs of those in the line of fire (i.e. developers and people behind the creation of a game like artists and composers) because a higher-up or a big wig messed up with the decisions are always a bad thing.

@Thief For what it's worth I think you're right! I've reported the posts but I think there's a clear moderation bias (I think they'll sooner remove -our- posts which are also against the rules of discussing moderation xD)

@Kiyata
Microids continued the Imagine and Petz series with their My Universe games.
Too bad, the games have same fate as Imagine & Petz games.

@Anti-Matter I do like those, I have most of them, but they really don’t have the charm that they Imagine & Petz ones did way back when.

I wish Ubisoft would do a proper Prince of Persia one last time before they sink into oblivion.

Considering the absolute turmoil Ubisoft is in right now, I’m not surprised

@Not_Soos the issues with most media companies is they forgot that they make media to be consumed by others and not themselves. Too many of them make changes to classic material because they feel it should be that way, and they do so without considering if their customers actually also want that. Then they acted shocked when the audience rejects it because it is not what they expected (or wanted), and turn to blaming the consumer for their poor decisions.

@Darknyht

That's true. I think Nintendo definitely had an issue with that back in the Wii U era--either that, or they just had the completely wrong idea of what consumers wanted. Like the Japanese Club Nintendo poll where players said they didn't want story in Paper Mario.

Although, the more I think about it, the quote was actually something like, "only 2% of people who took the Club Nintendo poll made mention of Super Paper Mario's story." That's not to say the customers DIDN'T like story, but perhaps that Tanabe applied his own biases about story to the poll and reported the data in a dubious way that falsely seemed to support his claim. Like politicians do all the time when they say "Look how low the unemployment rate was when so-and-so was in office compared to now! We fixed it!" despite conveniently ignoring the fact that there was a pandemic.

After all, when Club Nintendo was a thing, I and probably most others would just right "n/a" or something to our answer to each question that asked for a written response like, "what did/didn't you like about the game?" So, of course there weren't many people who commented on the story, just like they probably also didn't make mention of the gameplay, graphics, music, or anything else. We just took those polls to get the points.

I appreciate that Nintendo isn't just a soulless corporate machine who chases trends and that the developers have a genuine passion for the games they are making. But it's a double-edged sword, because if you view it as an expression of art instead of just another 9-5 job, you're more emotionally invested and less willing to make compromises to please the fans. You have a clear vision, and the game you're making is your baby.

It's a tough one, honestly. I don't know what the solution is.

Another bites the dust ark ark....they did themselves dis-service.

@Not_Soos no PSN here. I think I will live without Rayman and/or Ubislop.
Appreciate your taking the time to recommend it to me, tho.

Such a vile company

@Thief those topics were brought to games by the very same activists that made crappy games, so, bringing those themes up when needed, is not out of place. And he's not commiting any sort of crime here, he's just expressing himself, nor he is insulting or diminishing anybody at all. If you really don't like what he says, just ignore his comments, no one is forcing you to read them or acknowledge them.