Ubisoft Closes Two More Studios Because Apparently Six Rounds of Layoffs Build Character
“Ubisoft promised Manitoba 300 jobs by 2030 and a $264 million future, then showed up eight years early to cancel both.”
Sally's not done with you yet.
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
Sally's Take
Congratulations, Ubisoft. You have now laid off people SIX TIMES in a single calendar year, which is less a corporate restructuring and more a recurring personality trait. On June 10, 2026, you closed Ubisoft Winnipeg and Ubisoft Belgrade, impacting up to 380 employees across your latest bloodletting, bringing your 2026 body count to roughly 680 jobs eliminated or at risk. That is not a pivot. That is a fire sale with a PR department.
Let us talk about Winnipeg specifically, because this one has receipts with dollar signs on them. You opened that studio in 2018, formally launched it in January 2019, made a very public commitment to the province of Manitoba for a $264 million CAD investment, and pledged to hit 300 employees by 2030. You never hit that target. You closed the studio instead. The people of Manitoba did not get a technology hub. They got a cautionary tale about believing press releases. The team built foundational work on Anvil and Snowdrop engines and contributed to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Rainbow Six Siege, and their reward was a Wednesday morning internal meeting informing them it was over.
And Belgrade, your studio since 2016 that co-developed Ghost Recon Wildlands, The Crew 2, Steep, and the notorious Skull and Bones, also gone. Skull and Bones took over a decade and reportedly over $200 million to make, launched to a shrug from the entire planet, and somehow the developers pay the price while the decisions that greenlit it apparently remain fully employed. You are posting a record €1.3 billion operating loss on revenue that fell 21.8% to €1.4 billion, you have bled from over 20,000 employees in 2023 down to roughly 16,590, and Tencent now holds a 26.32% economic stake in your flagship franchise subsidiary. The house is not on fire. The house has been on fire for two years and you keep rearranging the furniture.
Think your work can survive this?
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.
What Actually Happened
- •Ubisoft announced the closure of Ubisoft Winnipeg (Canada) and Ubisoft Belgrade (Serbia) on June 10, 2026, marking the company's sixth round of layoffs in 2026, with up to 380 employees impacted across all affected locations.
- •Ubisoft Winnipeg, opened in 2018 and launched formally in January 2019, was a technology hub for the Anvil and Snowdrop engines and contributed to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Rainbow Six Siege. Ubisoft had publicly committed to a $264 million CAD investment in Manitoba and a target of 300 employees by 2030, a target it never reached.
- •Ubisoft Belgrade, founded in 2016, co-developed Ghost Recon Wildlands, The Crew 2, Steep, and Skull and Bones before being shut down. Ubisoft Barcelona will also cut 51 jobs, roughly 28% of its workforce, and pivot exclusively to Rainbow Six support. Around 170 developers were cut from Rainbow Six projects at Ubisoft Montreal.
- •The full 2026 layoff chronology includes: Halifax closed in January (71 jobs, following a unionization vote), Stockholm/Massive Entertainment lost 50+ in January, Toronto cut 40 and Abu Dhabi cut 29 in February, and Red Storm Entertainment (creator of the original Rainbow Six) was stripped of 105 employees in March and demoted to a support function.
- •Ubisoft reported a record €1.3 billion operating loss for fiscal year 2025-26 on revenue of €1.4 billion, a 21.8% year-over-year decline. The company's flagship franchises now sit under the Vantage Studios subsidiary, in which Tencent holds a 26.32% economic interest following a €1.16 billion deal closed in November 2025. Ubisoft has acknowledged FY2026-27 will also be a loss-making year.
Who Got Burned
The roughly 380 employees notified during Wednesday morning internal meetings on June 10 are the most immediate victims, many of whom built meaningful technical infrastructure powering Ubisoft's biggest franchises. The Winnipeg team in particular got burned twice: once by a company that made grand provincial commitments it never intended to honor, and once by being a cost center that gets cut before the executives who approved those commitments face any consequences. The province of Manitoba got burned by a corporate promise that evaporated quietly with no ceremony. Red Storm Entertainment, the studio that literally created Rainbow Six, was hollowed out to a support function in March, which means the IP it birthed is now the only Ubisoft franchise getting MORE resources while the people who built the template for it were shown the door. Ubisoft Barcelona's remaining 72% will spend their professional lives exclusively servicing Rainbow Six, which is not a career, it is a sentence.
Silver Lining
Here is the thing about studios that build engine technology: the skills those Winnipeg developers have are genuinely rare and genuinely portable. Deep expertise in proprietary engines like Anvil and Snowdrop translates directly to technical director, engine programmer, and tools engineer roles across the industry, and studios that are actually hiring in 2026 know that. Belgrade's team shipped real, shipped games across multiple genres and publishers, which is a portfolio that speaks louder than a press release. The broader and grimmer silver lining is that Ubisoft is finally, actually, being forced to make structural decisions instead of just trimming headcount and hoping the next Assassin's Creed saves the balance sheet. Consolidating studios and focusing Barcelona on a single viable franchise rather than spreading thin across a dozen struggling IPs is the right move even if the execution is brutal. If Ubisoft survives long enough to reach its targeted 2027-28 profitability, it will be because it stopped pretending it was still a 20,000-person company. That clarity, however painfully purchased, is the first honest thing the company has produced in years.
Your turn. Drop something.
Drop a URL, screenshot, or file and Sally will give you the honest truth.