Ubisoft lays off 105 devs from Tom Clancy studio after canceling two of its games — development of new titles is ending completely

According to a new report, French video game publisher Ubisoft has revealed plans to lay off 105 workers from its game development studio Red Storm Entertainment. Additionally, its remaining staff members are being redirected away from game development, and will instead be tasked with support work on the Snowdrop engine used for several Ubisoft games, IT, and customer relations.

The news comes from GamesIndustry.biz, which reported on Thursday morning that a source at Ubisoft confirmed these cuts and adjustments were coming.

Red Storm — formed in 1996, and then acquired by Ubisoft in 2000 — is best known for developing a wide variety of early Tom Clancy's video games, including entries in the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon franchises. Notably, it also developed the 2023 VR game Assassin's Creed Nexus VR for the Meta Quest 2.

It's most recent projects include a Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell VR game for the Oculus Quest and a free-to-play spinoff of Tom Clancy's The Division named The Division Heartland; both titles were canceled, with Ubisoft axing the former in 2022 and killing the latter in 2024.

These aren't the first layoffs that Red Storm Entertainment has faced in recent years. Employees were let go from the studio in August 2024 when Ubisoft cut 45 workers across it and Ubisoft San Francisco, and again in July last year when 19 devs were impacted.

A source at Ubisoft told GameIndustry.biz that this major wave of cuts was part of the publisher's savings plan that was announced in late January alongside the company's "major reset," which has seen most of its developers reorganized into five "Creative Houses," and the rest become part of a "Creative Network."

That plan entails saving €200 million, which has prompted Ubisoft to launch a voluntary redundancy initiative — AKA, asking workers if any of them would volunteer to be laid off — cut numerous devs from its various studios, and shut down several of the teams under its wing.

It's also resulted in the cancelation of six games, including the much-hyped remake of the legendary 2003 action-adventure title Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, four unannounced projects, and a mobile game that was in development.

The massive restructuring and these large and widespread cutbacks across the publisher's portfolio have come as a result of the poor sales and performance of many of Ubisoft's recent games (which it blamed on players last year) like Skull and Bones and Star Wars Outlaws.

Assassin's Creed Shadows was a notable bit of brightness in the dark, but overall, the firm is struggling — leading to it making a deal with Tencent last year that gave the Chinese conglomerate 25% stake in the company.

Whether or not Ubisoft can recover from years of slumping remains to be seen, but it's tragic that we're seeing even more video game industry layoffs as a result of its fight to save its business. All layoffs are disheartening, and the industry has seen far, far too many in recent years. Ubisoft did say that everyone affected will be given severance packages and other forms of support, at least, but still.

🗨️ When will the layoffs end?

Here I am, yet again, writing about video game industry layoffs. It feels like I've had to do this at least once a week or so for the past several years, and it's very depressing. Reasons for the cuts aside, it's simply tragic that so many have lost their jobs.

Do you have any thoughts about this latest wave of layoffs at Ubisoft? Share them in the comments if so, and on a lighter note, vote which Ubisoft franchise is your favorite in our poll:

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