Ubisoft set to cut up to 200 jobs headquarters in restructuring

[PARIS] Ubisoft Entertainment has entered discussions to cut as many as 200 jobs at its French headquarters as part of a reorganisation of the Assassin’s Creed maker.

Ubisoft is speaking to employee representatives about a voluntary termination of contracts, the video game maker said on Monday (Jan 26). The group last disclosed a total of 17,000 employees and about 1,100 at its headquarters near Paris.

Ubisoft shares dropped by a record on Thursday after the video game company said that it would cancel game projects, shut down studios and cut its guidance. It announced a new structure that will comprise five “creative houses”, business units each handling a game genre with “faster, decentralised decision-making”.

Starting in April, the units will be supported by a network of studios providing development resources and will share core services.

Ubisoft, once among the industry’s most respected and influential game publishers, has endured a series of setbacks in recent years. The company breached a loan covenant last year, triggering a highly unusual week-long delay in the release of its first-half financial results.

It’s also struggled with production delays and underperformance of high-profile games such as Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws in an increasingly competitive consumer market.

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The company said last week that it expects to record a loss before interest and tax of one billion euros (S$1.5 billion) in the fiscal year 2025 to 2026 as a result of the restructuring, driven by a one-time writedown of about 650 million euros.

The contract termination negotiations apply exclusively to Ubisoft International employees under French contracts and have no impact on other French entities or Ubisoft teams in the rest of the world, the company said. The proposed cuts must be agreed with employee representatives and approved by French authorities. BLOOMBERG