The French writer behind Far Cry and Murderer’s Creed is planning even more cuts, delays, and pivots as a part of a brutal new restructuring. Ubisoft introduced on Thursday {that a} company-wide reset will embrace a brand new inventive construction, “rightsizing of the organization,” and extra funding in issues like “player-facing Generative AI.”
The most recent shifts come amid a challenging five-year stretch for Ubisoft during which huge blockbusters like Murderer’s Creed Valhalla and Far Cry 6 had been few and much between whereas huge bets like Star Wars Outlaws and xDefiant didn’t repay. In its January 21 earnings press release, the corporate promised a “radically new value-creation model” primarily based round a “more gamer-centric organization.” This can embrace “business units with faster, decentralized decision-making and a greater ability to quickly adapt to players’ expectations” and a “rightsized and more agile organization, delivering improved structural efficiencies over time.”
A administration advisor firm like McKinsey & Firm couldn’t have written it higher. For these not versed in twenty first century corpo-speak, which means a sluggish disassembly of the worldwide AAA manufacturing unit that Ubisoft spent the 2010s build up and extra studio closures and layoffs. The transfer may even embrace delays of many huge video games and the cancellation of others like the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake that’s been in improvement for years. Ubisoft says it should double down on open-world video games and games-as-a-service whereas boosting investments in issues like “player-facing Generative AI.”
Ubisoft fragmented into “creative houses”
As an alternative of the built-in co-development mannequin that has led the corporate to churn out large video games with armies of studios from all over the world contributing to them, the brand new mannequin suggests a sequence of siloes throughout the firm primarily based round particular person IPs and genres. The primary is a Tencent-backed subsidiary referred to as Vantage Studios that owns Murderer’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege. The second will personal The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell. The third will personal For Honor, The Crew, Riders Republic, Brawlhalla, and Cranium & Bones. The fourth will personal Anno, Would possibly & Magic, Rayman, Prince of Persia, and Past Good & Evil. The fifth will personal Simply Dance, Idle Miner Tycoon, Ketchapp, Hungry Shark, Invincible: Guarding the Globe, Uno, and Hasbro-branded video games like Hasbro Recreation Evening.
“Each Creative House will benefit from dedicated leadership with a clear creative mandate and accountability,” Ubisoft claims. “These leadership teams will include high-profile talent coming from the industry. They will be tasked with attracting and developing top-level, specialist talent, and supported by incentive schemes aligned with creative success, player engagement and long-term value creation.” Will that really streamline issues although, or simply add a complete new layer of forms?
Extra closures, cuts, and layoffs
No restructuring is full with out firings. The corporate cites not too long ago introduced closures of its Halifax cell studio and Ubisoft Stockholm, in addition to layoffs at Abu Dhabi, RedLynx, and Huge. That is a part of an ongoing $117 million price discount, however the firm has now additionally dedicated to an extra $234 million of cuts over the following two years.
“We will also selectively close several studios and continue restructurings throughout the Group,” CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed. “While these decisions are difficult, they are necessary for us to build a more focused, efficient and sustainable organization over the long term.” He’s additionally open to promoting extra IP and studios if patrons have an interest.
However even these not getting explicitly laid off will face robust decisions as Ubisoft ends most distant work. “To support the effective implementation and operation of this new model, the Group also intends to return to five days per week on site for all teams, complemented by an annual allowance of working-from-home days,” the corporate wrote. Whereas Ubisoft argues that it’s essential to get its inventive groove again, some imagine it’s additionally meant as a means of implementing “soft layoffs,” pressuring these staff who don’t need to or can’t return to the workplace full time to give up.
Delays, delays, and extra delays
This reset has principally exploded Ubisoft’s upcoming recreation launch pipeline. Six video games have been canceled outright. Exterior of the Sands of Time remake, which was rumored to be coming early in 2026, the corporate ended improvement on 5 different video games that didn’t meet high quality requirements. These embrace “four unannounced titles,” of which three had been “new IPs” and one was a “mobile title.” For these counting at residence, that’s one recreation in need of the overall six that had been canned. What’s the thriller cancelation?
Ubisoft additionally delayed seven of its upcoming video games “to ensure enhanced quality benchmarks are fully met and maximize long-term value creation.” The corporate didn’t make clear which of these are introduced or unannounced, however did specify that one of many delays was an unannounced recreation deliberate for launch within the subsequent two months, which signifies it could be the rumored remake of Murderer’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Different huge video games that stay MIA are the following Ghost Recon, a multiplayer recreation referred to as Murderer’s Creed Invictus, and, in fact, Past Good and Evil 2.
Extra gen AI NPCs?
Ubisoft revealed quite a lot of upcoming ache to shareholders on Wednesday, like a $386 million gross margin discount for its present fiscal yr ending March 31. So it’s exhausting to know whether or not the corporate’s tease of extra gen AI funding is simply an try to throw them a bone, or one thing it’s really critical about as an train in “value creation” for avid gamers. The corporate promised “accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI.”
After failing to money in on rising applied sciences like cloud streaming and blockchain NFTs, Ubisoft promoted LLM chatbot NPCs at GDC 2024. It then returned to the concept late final yr with AI-powered squadmates in a tech demo that looked very Tom Clancy-ish. “Games of tomorrow will listen, understand, and react to players far more than today, and our research gives a glimpse of what adaptive, generative play could add on top of proven game systems,” Ubisoft director of GenAI gameplay Xavier Manzanares told Variety on the time. “It’s the first time we’ve shared an experiment this early with players, but our goal is to pave the way with a strong technology layer so our creators can start imagining the value it could bring to their project and players.”
Whether or not that worth turns into actual or stays imaginary, issues appear more likely to get more durable for Ubisoft earlier than they get higher.
Replace: 1/21/2026, 1:17 p.m. ET: Added extra info, together with about altering distant work insurance policies.
