It’s been a week since Ubisoft announced its massive restructuring, which saw six projects cancelled, seven titles delayed, and two studios closed. The company’s stock price dropped to a 15-year low, a 95% decline from its peak valuation.
The company’s announcement revolved around its new ‘Creative Houses’ structure, which will see its IPs placed into five different categories, organized around distinct genres and franchises. As announced by Ubisoft, each Creative House will have its own leadership structure and will be responsible for brand development, content strategy, and editorial direction for that particular Creative House.
A ‘Creative Network’ of studios will strengthen these Creative Houses, providing technical support, QA, and other development resources. It’s a change that Ubisoft say will bring more structure, speedy game development, and the ability to deploy technical resources across its portfolio.
It’s yet another change enforced at the publisher that has made employees feel uneasy. Some tell me that they feel like this is just a way to eventually sell off their IPs, while others theorise it’s a means to get cash injections into creating more subsidiaries with other companies more easily. Very few think that’s a meaningful change that will make much of a difference because, at the end of the day, it’s still the same people in charge who put the company is this place in the first place.
Creative Network Employees Are Worried
For the most part, and understandably so, most employees who currently work at Ubisoft are frustrated, confused, and worried about the future. Ubisoft’s third, and apparently final, cost-cutting measure will aim to save another 200 million euros by March 2028, a move that could result in thousands of developers being laid off. But the most noticeable of the worried employees come from Ubisoft’s new ‘Creative Network’, who tell me that the restructuring feels like it only applies to half of the company and suggests that they are easy targets for future layoffs.
That’s because, while not released to the public, Ubisoft has already outlined and assigned studios to each Creative House and the Creative Network, with around 20 studios now in the Creative Network. But internally, nothing has been set in stone or assigned regarding how they will assist the Houses.
Insider Gaming has been sent documentation outlining which Ubisoft Studios will go to which Creative House.
Creative House 1 (Vantage Studios)
Games – Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six
Studios – Barcelona, Montreal Vantage, Quedec, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Sofia
Creative House 2
Games – Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, The Division, Avatar
Studios – Paris (Ghost Recon), Massive, Montreal CH2, Toronto
Avatar was missing from the publicly released documents. When asked for comment about the future of Avatar, a Ubisoft spokesperson told Insider Gaming, “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a live game with internal teams working on it.”
Creative House 3
Games – Brawlhalla, For Honor, Riders Republic, Skull & Bones, The Crew
Studios – Blue Mammoth Games, Ivory Tower, Montreal CH3
Creative House 4
Games – Anno, Beyond Good and Evil, Might & Magic, Prince of Persia, Rayman, Trackmania
Studios – Mainz, Milan, Montepellier, Montreal CH4, Nadeo
Creative House 5
Games – Growtopia, Hasbro Games, Howrse, Hungry Shark, Invincible: Guarding the Glode, Just Dance, Kolibri’s portfolio, Ketchapp’s portfolio, UNO
Studios – Abu Dhabi, Barcelona Mobile, Ketchapp, Kolibrio Games, Paris (Just Dance), Ubisoft Mobile Games, Ubisoft Paris Mobile
Ubisoft also has four unannounced IP’s in development, which will fall into Creative House 2, 3, or 4, depending on the IP’s theme.
Creative Network
The following studios are all within the Creative Network:
- Annecy
- Belgrade
- Berlin
- Bordeaux
- Bucharest
- Chengdu
- Da Nang
- Dusseldorf
- Kyiv
- Odesa
- Warsaw
- Manila
- Paris
- Pune
- Red Storm
- RedLynx
- Reflections
- Shanghai
- Singapore
- Winnipeg
Darker Days to Come
It’s unfortunate to say, but despite an insane amount of good IPs and games to hopefully come, it still feels like Ubisoft’s darkest days aren’t yet over. Officially, it’ll be March 2028 before the cost-cutting will stop, but it feels like Ubisoft’s rollercoaster story of twists and turns are only just beginning.
Just yesterday, and even before the impending announcement of more layoffs in February, Ubisoft announced it aims to cut 200 jobs at Ubisoft Paris’ headquarters, a move that has seen the French Ubisoft unions propose a strike from February 10-12.
The unfortunate thing about all this is that, as always, it will be the developers who suffer the conseqeven before the impending announcement of more layoffs in February, Ubisoft announced it aims to cut 200 jobs at its Paris headquarters, a move that has prompted the French Ubisoft unions touences of years of misleadership.
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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They were not creative just trash. Curious if this happens industry wide strikes and finally push for union industry wide
Ubisoft should make cel shaded stuff adapt manfra stuff into games like how they did the Naruto games years ago. MFKZ as a GTA clone would be hype, a Code Lyoko game, Oban Star Racers open world/racing game, Radiant arena fighter/open world, Wakfu same action RPG/arena fighter/open world, Dream Land, Witch, a Martin Mystery game stealth/action adventure, Totally Spies same with team, Amazing Spiez too, Team Galaxy RPG, Funky Cops open world, Skyland open world action RPG, like those could work. They just refuse to change and do the same slop adapt to what is in all companies have this problem catering to crazy leftist millennials instead of jaded nihilistic zoomers their creation for not catering to them sooner with them now pushing 30.