We have news of yet another round of layoffs. This time, a relatively large number of people will lose their jobs.
Red Storm Entertainment, the game studio founded by Tom Clancy in 1996 and the first to make games based on his popular book series, will no longer develop games after its longtime parent company Ubisoft hit the studio with another round of layoffs and ended its game development operations. While the studio will not be shut down entirely, it will lose 105 developers and focus exclusively on supporting back-end technical operations.
Ubisoft has not yet made an official statement regarding the layoffs. However, a source at the studio confirmed the news to WCCFTech, stating that Red Storm will not close and will continue working on back-end technology activities. The source added that this is another step in Ubisoft’s cost-cutting efforts following the major restructuring announced in January, and gave no indication that this would be Ubisoft’s final cost-cutting measure. In other words, similar moves elsewhere under the French publisher now feel almost guaranteed…
Although Red Storm is known as the original Tom Clancy studio, it has recently become more closely associated with its work in VR. The team was also behind the latest Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, developed for Meta Quest headsets. Ubisoft acquired Red Storm Entertainment in 2000 after the studio broke onto the game development scene with the original Rainbow Six in 1998 and the original Ghost Recon in 2000.
Red Storm‘s last non-VR project to actually ship was Ghost Recon: Future Soldier in 2012. The same team was also behind the canceled The Division Heartland and a canceled Splinter Cell VR title. The studio also supported projects such as The Division and The Division 2, working on key elements of those games, including the fan-favorite Dark Zone.
So let’s take a deep breath and ask the question: who’s next?
