Ubisoft Layoffs Strike San Francisco and Red Storm Studios: What It Means for the Future

Ubisoft has reportedly laid off several employees at its San Francisco and Cary, N.C.-based sector Red Storm Entertainment. The layoffs are the second round this year at the game publisher, but they’re also the first to hit these two individual studios.

SOURCE: Ubisoft (Ubisoft Red Storm, San Francisco) gazes they might get hit by a car if walk across street_hist(open and got rid of 45_jobs

Ubisoft has made two different waves of layoffs this week, first laying off 45 employees between its San Francisco and Red Storm Entertainment studios on Thursday. The exact distribution of layoffs between the two locations is still unknown, though social media reports indicate that Red Storm was by far hit hardest.

Also Read: Is Santa Monica Studio Secretly Working on Both a New IP and the Next God of War?

Ubisoft said in a statement to Bloomberg that the layoffs were “difficult yet necessary” and an effort toward realigning the studios with their business priorities as well as long-term development plans. While the company provided severance packages and a slate of career assistance to departing employees, the surprise layoffs have introduced immediate job uncertainty for many.

Effect on Select Ubisoft Studios

Ubisoft San Francisco is also the studio working on xDefiant and overseeing the development of a new Rocksmith. And Red Storm Entertainment was also leading the charge on The Division Heartland, a free-to-play shooter that was canned earlier this year.

In addition to The Division, Red Storm also has a history with the Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six series. Among the names of those axed figures like Creative Director Keith Evans which also includes an assortment of game designers and marketing professionals.

A rough year of job cuts at Ubisoft

The layoffs represent Ubisoft’s second round of 2023. That reduction came after the company laid off 45 employees from its Global Publishing central and APAC (Asia-Pacific) teams earlier in 2019.

The year previous was much worse, with North Carolina and Newcastle (UK) customer service roles being slashed as well as those departments at Ubisoft Montreal along with the company’s special effects studio Hybride. In addition to the studio closures, Ubisoft shut its entire London office.

Ubisoft had already announced it was slimming down in a full-year financial report published in May, confirming that 1,700 positions had been reduced worldwide from the beginning of 2022—approximately half of them this year.

With Ubisoft in the midst of reorganizing its workforce, these layoffs call into question where the company and its formative studios are headed next.