Another day, another report of jobs lost in the video game industry. Ubisoft says it has conducted a “targeted realignment” at its Toronto studio, the result of which is 33 jobs made redundant.
The news came from PC Gamer on Saturday, to whom Ubisoft provided a statement.
“Ubisoft Toronto has decided to conduct a targeted realignment to ensure it can deliver on its ambitious roadmap,” reads the statement provided to PC Gamer. “Unfortunately, this will impact the roles of 33 team members who will be leaving Ubisoft. We are committed to providing comprehensive support to them, including severance and career assistance, to help through this transition.”
The job losses come as a bit of a surprise. Ubisoft Toronto was recently drafted to contribute to the publisher’s long-in-development Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake. The troubled remake began at Indian studios Ubisoft Mumbai and Ubisoft Pume before development duties shifted to Ubi Montreal in 2022. Toronto, the fourth major internal studio to work on the game, was brought in to assist.
This continues a trend, not just within Ubi but in the wider industry, of large projects getting away from their assigned teams and requiring the help of other large studios to get them out the door. February’s Skull and Bones is maybe the most well-known Ubisoft example, a game that was touched by almost every studio in the business. Xbox has run into similar problems over the last few years, bringing in Crystal Dynamics to assist The Initiative on Perfect Dark and Eidos Montreal to help Playground Games on Fable.
The Ubisoft Toronto team has been handling its new responsibilities while battling away on a Splinter Cell remake that was announced in 2021 and quickly forgotten about. Considering the many spinning plates in its patch, one might expect to see Toronto staffing up, not down. Ubisoft says everything is proceeding according to plan. “Our plan remains unchanged, and our teams are working to deliver on the Splinter Cell remake and other projects at the studio.”
It isn’t, though, because these job losses, like almost all the rest this year, aren’t really about ‘delivering on ambitious roadmaps’. It’s not really about making better games, and it sure isn’t about taking care of your people. It’s about making the line go up on a stock market ticker and keeping the shareholders happy. Sure enough, Ubisoft’s stock did see a small bump off the back of the news, so job done, I suppose.
Image: Ubisoft, Kotaku Australia
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