Ubisoft has confirmed that a new round of layoffs might affect its Swedish studios. 55 employees are impacted across Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft Stockholm.
These are a part of Ubisoft’s ongoing restructuring plans. According to the company, after reviewing their future roadmap, it led to “additional steps” being taken. This resulted in these job losses.
This is not the first time Ubisoft has had layoffs in 2026. It follows the recent closure of Ubisoft Halifax earlier this year that affected 71 employees. On top of that, RedLynx also had some layoffs last year. These moves are reportedly part of a larger cost-reduction effort that has been ongoing for several years. This led Ubisoft to cancel multiple projects and restructure parts of the company.
More recently, they also revealed plans to reorganize their teams under a new structure known as “Creative Houses.” The idea is to group the biggest franchises under one thing. One of these groups, Vantage Studios, is backed by Tencent. They will handle franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry. Ubisoft is expected to announce more of these Creative Houses in the near future.
They also stated that the layoffs are not linked to individual performance and that the long-term direction of both studios remains unchanged.
Multiple Projects Continue
The news is really surprising given Massive Entertainment’s current position within Ubisoft.
The studio has Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, is actively working on The Division 3, and continues to support The Division 2, including its upcoming Survivors Mode. Beyond that, Massive and Ubisoft Stockholm play a big role in the development of Ubisoft’s Snowdrop engine, that powers a few of their most important projects, including Star Wars Outlaws and the Splinter Cell remake.
In addition, the Swedish studios will continue their work on an unannounced technology-focused project as well, alongside their responsibilities linked to Snowdrop and Ubisoft Connect.
A Familiar Story
Even if Ubisoft insists that the layoffs will not affect its long-term plans, the situation reflects a bigger “trend” across the games industry. Restructuring continues to come at the expense of developers, even for studios delivering major releases and supporting good technology.
For the people behind these projects, it is a tough reminder that industry-wide changes often come with a very real human cost.
For more guides or information, check out our latest news!
Source: Kotaku
