Summary
In a regretfully continuing trend across the gaming industry,Assassin’s Creeddeveloper Ubisoft Montreal is the latest studio to issue layoffs to its staff. 2023 has seen a considerable amount of corporate downsizing among video game companies, withMicrosoft cutting over 10,000 jobsacross its many gaming subsidiaries way back in January following a rough fiscal quarter. These layoffs included cuts to 343 Industries and Bethesda, and Microsoft would announce even more firings in July.
This unfortunate trend of video game layoffs is affecting more than just Microsoft, as many other gaming companies and developers have been announcing cuts to their workforces throughout 2023. These include indie studio Team17, which is known for its work on games likeWormsandGolf With Your Friends, as well as major triple-A names like BioWare, CD Projekt Red, Epic Games, and evenformerHalodeveloper Bungie. October was especially rough, with no less than four Sony-owned developers letting workers go as the result of economic troubles or corporate restructuring.
Now Ubisoft Montreal, the publisher behind several of the most recentAssassin’s Creedgames, is announcing layoffs to its staff. According toKotaku, the Canadian-based studio is cutting 98 jobs as part of a “reorganization” of its general and administrative teams. This round of layoffs will also affect other Canadian Ubisoft divisions like Ubisoft IT and Ubisoft’s SFX studio Hybride, which helped produce the hit Disney+ TV seriesThe Mandalorian.In a notice to the government of Quebec, Ubisoft stated that a total of 124 positions will be cut from the company as part of efforts to “optimize its resources to be more sustainable in the long term.”
In another statement shared with Kotaku, a Ubisoft spokesperson wrote thatthese recent layoffs are not being taken lightlyby the studio and that this restructuring will not affect Ubisoft Montreal’s production teams. Said production teams have been the largest and most prominent among Ubisoft, having crafted the company’s biggest hits likeFar CryandRainbow Six Siege.However, there were reports of trouble within Ubisoft Montreal’s offices back in September due to delays, cancelations, and the closing of in-house studios like Ubisoft Benelux.
Layoffs at Ubisoft Montreal are almost unheard of due to its successful work on properties likeAssassin’s Creed, but it and many other parts of the publisher’s Canadian branch are being downsized as part of an unfortunate trend in 2023. Only time will tell if Ubisoft will lay off even more workers, and what effect these cuts will have on upcoming Ubisoft Montreal titles like the plannedPrince of Persia: The Sands of Timeremake andAssassin’s Creed: Project Hexe.
