Ubisoft is laying off 124 employees

Ubisoft is the latest big player in the games industry to announce a round of job cuts.

On Tuesday, the French company said it was cutting 124 positions, mainly based in Canada.

“Over the past few months, every team within Ubisoft has been exploring ways to streamline our operations and enhance our collective efficiency so that we are better positioned for success in the long term,” Ubisoft said in a statement issued to VGC.

“In this context, today we announced that we are reorganizing our Canadian studios’ general and administrative functions and reducing headcount in Hybride (our VFX studio based in Montreal) and in our global IT team, which impacts 124 positions overall.”

Kotaku had  earlier reported that the company was making layoffs at Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry studio Ubisoft Montreal, which is its largest in-house development team with some 4,000 employees as of 2021.

“These are not decisions taken lightly and we are providing comprehensive support for our colleagues who will be leaving Ubisoft during this transition,” Ubisoft’s statement continued.

“We also want to share our utmost gratitude and respect for their many contributions to the company. This restructuring does not affect our production teams.”

In September, the company announced plans to close its Ubisoft London mobile studio, which is best known for the Hungry Shark series, in a move that will affect 54 staff.

Ubisoft said in January that it wanted to make some €200 million in cost cuts over the next two years “through targeted restructuring, divesting some non-core assets and usual natural attrition”, while adding that it will “continue to look at hiring highly talented people for its biggest brands and live services”.

In an update last month, the publisher said: “With the continued tight control on recruitments as well as targeted restructurings, the total number of employees worldwide stood at 19,410 at the end of September 2023, compared to 20,729 at the end of September 2022.”

Job losses across the games industry have been widespread in 2023. Companies impacted by layoffs this year include Xbox Game Studios, Epic Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment, CD Projekt, Unity, Riot Games, Blizzard, Crystal Dynamics, BioWare, Striking Distance, Team17, Frontier Developments and Telltale Games.