Ubisoft closes two studios and cuts nearly 400 jobs in its sixth layoff wave of 2026
Ubisoft has announced another round of layoffs, closing two studios and cutting staff across at least five locations — its sixth restructuring event in 2026 alone. Up to 380 roles are at risk, representing roughly 2.3% of the company's total workforce. The cuts follow a reported €1.5 billion loss for the fiscal year ending May 2026, and sit inside a broader €500M cost-reduction plan running through 2028.
The broken promise
The most striking closure is Ubisoft Winnipeg. When the studio opened in 2018, Ubisoft pledged a $264 million investment and committed to growing the team to 300 employees by 2030, per Shacknews. It never got there. The studio is now shuttered after eight years, with an estimated 65–85 people losing their jobs. Ubisoft Belgrade — a support studio founded in 2016 — is also closing, with around 100 staff affected.
The Rainbow Six Montreal team took the single largest hit: 120 people, a 12% reduction of that studio. A further 50 cuts landed on the R6 Mobile team and several unannounced projects. Ubisoft San Francisco absorbed additional reductions on top of the 277 jobs already lost when XDefiant was cancelled in late 2024.
Barcelona goes all-in on one game
Ubisoft Barcelona, which previously contributed to Rabbids, The Division, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, and Assassin's Creed, is being refocused exclusively on Rainbow Six Siege. Fifty-one staff are being let go in the process. In an internal memo from Vantage Studios leads Charlie Guillemot and Christophe Derennes — obtained by Insider Gaming — the company described the move as "focusing our resources and expertise on priority areas."
A pattern, not a plan
Game Developer reports that these cuts are framed as survival rather than strategy: the €500M target reflects how severely Ubisoft's financials have deteriorated. Six rounds of layoffs in a single calendar year — hitting Halifax, Red Storm, and now Winnipeg, Belgrade, Barcelona, and Montreal in a single day — suggests reactive cost-cutting rather than a coherent studio roadmap. Tencent holds a 25% stake in Vantage Studios, the subsidiary housing Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, following a €1.16 billion investment. Studios outside that umbrella, like Winnipeg and Belgrade, appear to have had the least protection when the budget pressure arrived.
