Ubisoft continues to cut studios, and of course the French publisher has used the usual justification, so Yves Guillemot’s company wants to keep bonuses for management, while the other developers get only a pittance.

Bloomberg reports that Ubisoft has resorted to layoffs at two of its studios in the US. The studio in San Francisco, California and Red Storm Entertainment in Cary, North Carolina are affected. Ubisoft San Francisco developed South Park: The Fractured But Whole, Rocksmith, and XDefiant, while Red Storm is primarily involved with Tom Clancy franchises.

Between two yawns, a Ubisoft spokesperson explained that a difficult but necessary decision has been made to align the organization of these studios with their future business and development goals. The 45 laid-off developers will receive severance packages and career support from Ubisoft. They may then be offered positions at other studios within the French publisher.

The French publisher announced in May that its free-to-play multiplayer survival shooter Tom Clancy’s The Division Heartland, which was announced for PC and consoles in May 2021, has been canceled. The game was being developed by Red Storm Entertainment, so it was only a matter of time before people would lose their jobs after the game’s development was halted. When the project was canceled, Yves Guillemot, the publisher’s CEO, explained that the game did not fit into the company’s plans to focus on two things: open-world adventures and game-as-a-service (GaaS) titles. “In line with the increased selectivity of our investments, we have decided to stop the development of The Division Heartland and redeploy our resources to bigger opportunities such as XDefiant and Rainbow Six Siege,” added Frédérick Duguet, Ubisoft’s Chief Financial Officer.

So the cutbacks continue everywhere, and who knows when they’ll end, although we’ve already written that the gaming industry may be starting to show some positive signs.

Source: VGC, Bloomberg