Ubisoft Closes 2 Studios & Lays Off Around 380 Employees
The company is not happy to have its "layoff embargo" broken.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft continues its restructuring by closing 2 studios: one in Winnipeg and one in Belgrade. Around 165 employees were laid off there, but that's not all: other studios were affected as well.
According to Insider Gaming, together with Ubisoft Barcelona, Ubisoft San Francisco, and the Rainbow Six Siege team, the company let go of approximately 380 employees.
"Over the past months. Ubisoft has been evolving its organization to simplify how it operates, reduce its cost base, and strengthen the company for the long term. These decisions also reflect adjustments to the level of activity following recent portfolio reviews," said the announcement posted to Ubisoft’s internal communications channel. "In Production. Difficult decisions were made to close our studios in Winnipeg and Belgrade, and we have initiated consultations regarding a proposed restructuring of our Barcelona studio with a refocus of activities on Rainbow Six subject to employee representative consultations."
Apparently, there are also changes underway across the global Publishing organization, "to adapt how teams are structured and deployed, while maintaining a strong presence in key markets."
Ubisoft wasn't happy with Insider Gaming revealing the information: journalist Tom Henderson said that the company contacted him and claimed that the news was under embargo.
"After some of these stories went live, Ubisoft contacted us to say that the information was under an embargo (which IG never received), which, frankly, is weird but understandable, since employees should be told first by their employer. However, before each story went live, the affected teams were informed of the impacts, and that's how we found out; it just wasn't a company-wide announcement yet. Sure, there were probably a few people who were affected and didn't know about the layoffs/changes, but it has NEVER been the media's job to protect a company."
To me personally, no, layoff embargoes are not understandable; this is just an attempt to silence outlets in the future and lessen the inevitable blow to the studio's reputation. Arguably, trying to push a "layoff embargo" is making it worse.
The truth remains the same, with or without an embargo: 380 people have lost their jobs. Hopefully, Ubisoft will compensate them fairly.
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