Ubisoft Shutters ‘Star Wars Outlaws’ And ‘Skull And Bones’ Support Studio, Announces “Targeted Restructuring” Of Three More Teams In Order To “Reduce Costs That Ensure Long-Term Stability”
The hits just keep on coming for Ubisoft: Amidst their ongoing operational struggles, the French developer has announced that in an effort to “ensure long-term stability”, they will be undertaking a mass restructuring of three of their satellite support studios, as well as the full-on closing of one more.
As first publicly detailed by Ubisoft to Eurogamer Editor-in-Chief Tom Phillips, this staffing shake-up will see downsizing at their Ubisoft Blue Byte (located in Düsseldorf), Stockholm, and Ubisoft Reflections (located in Newcastle) support teams, as well as the complete closure of their Leamington studio.
In a statement provided to the outlet, a Ubisoft spokesperson explained, “As part of our ongoing efforts to prioritise 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.”
“Unfortunately, this should impact 185 employees overall,” they added. “We are deeply grateful for their contributions and are committed to supporting them through this transition.”
In terms of work history, the Düsseldorf team is perhaps known for their work on the Anno and The Settlers series of real-time strategy games, the latter series of which they created in 1993, roughly ten years before their 2001 acquisition by Ubisoft.
Meanwhile, in its eight-year lifespan, the Stockholm team served as a general support studio, going wherever Ubisoft needed additional dev attentions. Perhaps their most notable title was the action-adventure Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, having provided significant assistance to primary developer Massive Entertainment in bringing the Far Cry formula to the world of the Na’vi.
Over in England, Ubisoft Reflections is best known for creating the Driver series, having developed each and every one of the series’ mainline entries (Driver, Driver 2, Driver 3, Parallel Lines, and San Francisco). However, in recent years, the team has had their efforts re-focused on the Just Dance series, most recently its 2017 entry.
As for their Leamington location, the Canadian studio first came to prominence in 2009 with DJ Hero, as developed for their then-parent company Activision’s popular music rhythm game franchise.
Following subsequent secondary work on Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, 2017 saw them acquired by Ubisoft and reclassified as a pure support studio, after which they would be assigned to assist development on such titles as Far Cry 5, Skull and Bones, and Star Wars Outlaws.
Notably, these restructuring plans come amidst a period of uncertainty for Ubisoft’s future, as the Assassin’s Creed Shadows developer is reportedly looking to reverse their current financial misfortunes by selling off either part or the entirety of their operations to new owners, ideally (per reports) in a way that allows the current owners, the Guillemort brothers, continue serving as its overseers.
As of writing, the current front-runner for Ubisoft’s new owner is the China-based Tencent, who currently owns a 10% stake in the company. However, no overt moves have yet been made towards this potential.
At current, Ubisoft’s next release is set as Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which is currently on track to hit shelves on February 14th.
Whether or not it will do anything to help Ubisoft’s current fortunes remains to be seen (but let’s be real: Don’t count on it).
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