Yesterday’s Ubisoft announcement of its massive restructuring has made headlines across the industry for cancelling projects, closing down studios, and delaying projects, but one of the biggest announcements, for the most part, has been overlooked by many.
I am, of course, talking about the human impact of the recent restructuring and recently announced cost-cutting measures aimed to save the publisher an additional 200 million euros by the end of March 2028, which could result in thousands of more developers losing their jobs.
According to Ubisoft, this will be the “third and final phase” of its cost-cutting, and will end by March 2028. Ubisoft is still going through its second phase, which started four years ago and was a 300 million euro cost-cutting measure.
In that time, Ubisoft has decreased its headcount from 20,729 (as of September 2022) to 17,097 (as of September 2025), a reduction of 3632 developers. Ubisoft London, Osaka, San Francisco, Leamington, Halifax, and Stockholm have all closed their doors. More layoffs at the company will also be announced on February 12, 2026.
It doesn’t take a genius, then, to see that an additional 200 million euros in cost-cutting will lead to yet more studio closures and layoffs. Ubisoft’s third cost-cutting measure will be two-thirds of the second round, so with that round seeing 3632 jobs lost and using similar proportions, we can calculate that the next round could see approximately 2400 jobs lost by the end of March 2028.
On top of that, Ubisoft is set to enforce a return-to-office mandate of 5 days a week, while offering “annual allowances” for working from home. It’s a move that Ubisoft says will help with “efficiency, creativity, and collective success,” but many developers see it as another attempt to force yet more employees to leave the company as part of cost savings.
It’s part of Ubisoft’s strategy to prevent announcing mass layoffs (for the most part) to avoid negative press. Over the last few years, Ubisoft has continued to reduce its headcount through similar ploys, including not renewing contracts, giving developers nothing to do in the hopes they’ll leave, and enforcing RTO mandates.
A Bigger Change is Needed
Ubisoft has been on a downward trend for a number of years (despite having a great future pipeline of games), but the constant mismanagement, structural changes, and lack of ownership from higher-ups have led to one of the most horrible environments for developers to work in in the games industry.
How are developers meant to get excited about their work and be productive and creative when they know thousands more of their colleagues will likely be gone in the next couple of years? When the same mistakes from leadership continue to happen year after year without accountability? When another restructuring and more cost-cutting measures will happen in the coming years?
It’s pretty evident that Ubisoft’s big restructuring needs to happen from the top and not the other way around.
We all know what needs to happen, but stubbornness is worse than witchcraft.
Both current and former employees can contact me securely and anonymously at [email protected] if you would like to weigh in on current events, or share your story.
For more Insider Gaming, read about Beyond Good & Evil 2 surviving the announced restructuring at Ubisoft. And for more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
Tom Henderson is Insider Gaming's Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief. When he's not running one of the industry's leading independent video game websites, he's probably playing an FPS like Call of Duty,…
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How are they still open? Company. is worth less than the investment Tencent put in. Tencent should just buy it or Vantage already.