[UPDATE] Ubisoft reached out to state that there are no "production layoffs" in the Montréal office.
[ORIGINAL STORY] French website Les Echos has revealed that Ubisoft is enacting another round of layoffs and studio closures. The offices to be closed down are those of Winnipeg, Canada, and Belgrade, Serbia.
Founded in 2018 and officially opened in January 2019, Ubisoft Winnipeg was established as a co-development and technology studio, with its core mission being to develop tools, engines, and technology that power other Ubisoft studios, specifically enabling open world and systemic gameplay across major franchises like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, and Rainbow Six. We also know they have contributed technical work to Massive's Star Wars Outlaws, as a programmer from Winnipeg gave a GDC talk specifically about the game's machine-learning vehicles.
Ubisoft Belgrade was even older, having been established back in 2016. The studio has helped develop or support titles including Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, Steep, The Crew 2, Rainbow Six, Riders Republic, Assassin's Creed Mirage, and Skull & Bones. Unfortunately, those aren't the only studios affected. Ubisoft Montréal also suffered layoffs, as did the Barcelona office in Spain, and in total, Les Echoes estimates up to 380 employees may have been affected.
This is the sixth round of layoffs at the publisher this year alone. Red Storm Entertainment, a historic team that made some of the most notable early entries in the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon franchises, lost 105 employees in March and was turned into a mere support studio. In February, Ubisoft Toronto cut 40 employees; in January, it laid off people across various offices on three occasions: shutting down the Halifax office, laying off around 55 employees in Sweden at Massive and the Stockholm office, and then another 29 at the Abu Dhabi studio.
This means a total of 680 jobs may have been cut at Ubisoft in 2026, and we're not even halfway through the year. It's all part of the publisher's plan to reorganize its internal structure (including a mandate to return to the office, which was replaced by an annual allowance of work-from-home days), in its desperate bid to return to profitability after several unsuccessful game releases.
Ubisoft's next major launch, Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced, is due in less than a month on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S, and X.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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