After many of its games have been delayed or underperformed in sales,Ubisofthas now let go of 60 employees without any advance notice or warning. This news may seem small compared to other similar instances with companies such as 343 Industries and EA, but it follows after a stream of bad news forUbisoft. Just in the last few months, the French video game publisher has dealt with its Montpellier studio going under a labor investigation, and a few of its other locations in Europe have closed due to “external factors.”
Now, the publisher has released a statement about laying off 60 workers, citing which ofUbisoft’s officeshave been affected. However, none of the employees were even told that the restructuring effort was underway, only finding out once the change had already left them without a job.
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In the statement from Ubisoft, it cites that the reason for these layoffs is due to its Customer Relation Center team “evolving its organization” in the Newcastle, UK and Cary, North Carolina offices. The initiative included letting go a few members of the customer relations team that worked the recentXDefiantclosed beta, which is yet another game in Ubisoft’s line-up that’s had some concerns surrounding it arise from fans as the publisher continues to struggle. In addition, some employees from other departments than just customer service have expressed being cut from the company, despite a lack of recognition officially from Ubisoft.
After Ubisoft’s CEO sent an emailtelling employees to “expect disguised layoffs, staff reductions,” and other things earlier this year, workers at the publisher’s Paris studio went on strike. The incident led to Yves Guillemot issuing an apology, but now Ubisoft has put itself on a list of other gaming companies that have also gone through layoffs this year with the likes of Unity, Riot Games, and Xbox Games Studios.
In the same email that has only added fuel to the fire that is Ubisoft’s many delays and cancelations,Yves Guillemot has also stated that 2023 is crucialto the company. Yet, this year has only seemed to have pushed Ubisoft further to the brink financially as these strings of incidents surrounding the company haven’t helped it at all, especially in critical areas such as its plummeting stock price. Considering what Guillemot has said previously, fans ofUbisoftmight need to brace themselves for even more worrying news in the future.
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