When a union comes down this hard on Yves Guillemot, it usually means Ubisoft’s internal situation is in serious trouble.

The games industry is still feeling the aftershocks of last week’s announcement that Ubisoft is set to undergo a major overhaul, splitting the entire company into five new creative houses. The shake-up has created new leadership roles that pushed out Ubisoft veterans, canceled six projects (including Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake), delayed seven more, and greenlit four new ones, while also ordering further layoffs and a mandatory return to the office in an attempt to make the plan stick. The restructuring not only coincided with the company’s share price falling to its lowest level since 2011 and a 95% loss of total value over the past eight years, it also drove employee morale to a new low while sending anger through the roof.

According to France’s Le Monde, Solidaires Informatique, a French games-industry union, has already organized a strike outside Ubisoft Paris as a first response to what it calls management’s absurd decisions. Ten people took part in the protest, addressing Guillemot directly, and the union laid out three basic demands at this first demonstration (ending the cost-cutting program, maintaining and extending the telework policy, and delivering fair pay rises). Marc Rutschlé, a Solidaires Informatique representative at Ubisoft Paris, described Ubisoft’s internal atmosphere as one dominated by anger and despair.

“Right now, it is clear to us that Yves Guillemot neither knows nor understands his company or its employees. The company is continuing its cost-cutting and layoff plan. Our teams are already working under pressure, often understaffed. After several years without raises (or with very small increases), we learned that employees will not receive a raise this year either. At the same time, the reorganization is creating a number of senior positions with excessively high pay. In our union’s view, this forced reversal is a disguised downsizing plan designed to push employees out of the company. The mood in the studio is particularly bleak, with anger and despair reigning. Staff representatives have repeatedly witnessed tearful breakdowns; some colleagues have also expressed suicidal intent. If Guillemot wanted people to be unhappy, he couldn’t have done better,” Rutschlé said.

Following the announcement of Ubisoft’s restructuring and third round of cost-cutting measures, Ubisoft’s internal communication channels are full of employees shaming upper management and asking for change. It’s quite something seeing people very openly criticising a company… https://t.co/jodMK6qx4B

— Tom Henderson (@_Tom_Henderson_) January 23, 2026

Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming added that Ubisoft’s internal communication channels are packed with employees calling out upper management and demanding change. Some are reportedly looking for other opportunities on LinkedIn even though they have not been laid off. It is unclear how the company intends to ride out this storm. Losing 95% of total value in eight years is a brutal indictment of the company’s leadership, before you even factor in the allegations of abuse at Ubisoft that management allegedly failed to properly investigate, alongside the countless layoffs in the meantime.

Source: WCCFTech, Le Monde, LinkedIn