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Ubisoft has confirmed the closure of its development studio in Leamington, first reported by Eurogamer, as well as “targeted restructurings” at its Düsseldorf, Stockholm, and Ubisoft Reflections studios, that will see 185 people put out of work.
“As part of our ongoing efforts to prioritize projects and reduce costs that ensure long-term stability at Ubisoft, we have announced targeted restructurings at Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Stockholm and Ubisoft Reflections and the permanent closure of Ubisoft Leamington site,” a Ubisoft representative told PC Gamer. “Unfortunately, this should impact 185 employees overall. We are deeply grateful for their contributions and are committed to supporting them through this transition.”
Ubisoft Leamington was founded in 2002 as FreeStyleGames, and was acquired by Activision in 2008. It developed the DJ Hero games and Guitar Hero Live, none of which were released on PC, but the decline of interest in the music game genre eventually led to layoffs and a sale of the studio to Ubisoft in 2017. Renamed to Ubisoft Leamington, it contributed to numerous games including Hyper Scape, Watch Dogs: Legion, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Skull and Bones.
The closure of Ubisoft Leamington and layoffs across three other studios is the latest in what Ubisoft described in a strategic update released earlier this month as “decisive steps to reshape the Group in order to deliver best-in-class player experiences, enhance operational efficiency and maximize value creation.”
Those steps were motivated by an “absolutely dire 2024,” as we put it, a year riddled with delays, and cancellations, and games failing to meet expectations: Most notably, sales of Star Wars Outlaws were “softer than expected,” while Assassin’s Creed Shadows—the game Ubisoft absolutely, positively needed to salvage the year—was pushed out of 2024 and is now set to arrive in March 2025. In December 2024, Ubisoft announced the closure of its San Francisco and Osaka studios and a “ramp down” of operations at its Sydney studio, resulting in close to 300 people losing their jobs.
The extended rough stretch forced Ubisoft to make a full-scale return to Steam in September 2024—it had spent the previous several years working exclusively with the Epic Games Store—and, more significantly, has also reportedly sparked talks of a buyout of some sort involving Tencent. At last report, negotiations on that front were proceeding but had hit a bump over who would be left in control in the event of such a deal: The Guillemot family, which founded Ubisoft in 1986, wants to remain in charge but Tencent, which is currently Ubisoft’s second-largest shareholder, wants more say in executive-level decisions.
A closer look at Ubisoft’s future may be shared as part of the company’s next financial report, which is scheduled to take place on February 13.
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Kurt Indovina
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