Ubisoft has laid off 60 people from its North Carolina and Newcastle, UK offices. The cuts seemed to have impacted Ubisoft’s customer service department the most.
“Ubisoft’s Customer Relation Center team is evolving its organization to focus on where we can have a significant impact while remaining steadfast in our commitment to consistently support our players anywhere in the world.” the company said in a statement.
Ubisoft continued: “We estimate that, due to organizational changes, 60 team members from our offices in Cary, North Carolina in the US and Newcastle in the UK could be impacted.”
Several now former employees have already taken to Twitter to confirm that they’ve been laid off by the company. According to these employees, they were not given advance notice about the cuts.
I (and about 60 other amazing people) were laid off today with no notice. I’m divorced, living alone with a mortgage, and have a daughter who I love and support, so if any of you have any leads, please reach out. Thank you so much. <3
— Matthew Hayes (@MatthewFace) May 10, 2023
I was laid off after 6 years as a lead from Ubisoft. If anyone has leads, preferably wfh for social media positions, please let me know 💖
— ✨jessie✨ (@leftistcutie) May 10, 2023
I just got let go from my job at Ubisoft in a massive layoff out of nowhere. With no indication or preparation.
I really just don’t know how to feel. If anyone has any job leads on game audio stuff, or just game tech stuff let me know. I’m in a weird place rn lol
— Matthew Harnage (@matthewharnage) May 10, 2023
This news comes after a report back in January where Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot addressed a company-wide Q&A about an upcoming restructuring. Guillemot’s comments during the Q&A also prompted a call for a strike at the company’s Paris studio.
The company has faced several hardships over the past few years. Ubisoft delayed Skull & Bones for the sixth time and canceled three unannounced games. Additionally, games like Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope and Just Dance 2023 underperformed. Back in February, Ubisoft admitted that all of the delays and cancelations were necessary because the company was making too many games at once.
Ubisoft isn’t the only video game company that is currently going through layoffs. Others such as Unity, Private Division, Xbox Games Studios, and Riot Games all laid off employees this year.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.
When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey