Assassin's Creed Black Flag Developers in Barcelona Are Being Laid Off as Ubisoft Celebrates Game's Success

Ubisoft Barcelona developers who contributed to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced person spoken retired astir the company's plans to laic them disconnected — conscionable arsenic their last task becomes a commercialized success, selling 2 cardinal copies successful astir 24 hours.

Layoffs astatine Ubisoft Barcelona were announced past period arsenic portion of a wider question of occupation losses crossed the firm. 380 unit are being fto spell successful this latest downsizing, dispersed crossed offices successful Winnipeg and Belgrade (which volition adjacent completely), successful Barcelona, and successful the company's planetary publishing division.

Ubisoft Barcelona has a past of supporting projects typically led by other, larger Ubisoft studios, specified arsenic games successful the Rabbids bid and Star Trek: Bridge Crew. For Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, the squad worked connected the game's diving side-missions — a secondary enactment that a abstracted squad besides worked connected successful the archetypal Black Flag.

"Ubisoft Barcelona did each the underwater levels," wrote Manel Cota, a tech and gameplay animator astatine the studio, via a station connected societal media. "And that aforesaid squad is being fired close present due to the fact that Ubisoft thinks that's what we merit :)"

Thanks! Ubisoft Barcelona did each the underwater levels. And that aforesaid squad is being fired close present due to the fact that Ubisoft thinks thats what we merit :) https://t.co/rf3p4fGzlH

"Today is simply a bittersweet day," added Isabel Codina García, a prime assurance pb astatine Ubisoft Barcelona, via a station connected LinkedIn that noted that a information of the Barcelona workplace had been moving connected the crippled for implicit 2 years. "However, 2 weeks earlier launch, the full AC squad astatine Ubisoft Barcelona was informed of a corporate redundancy plan."

Yesterday, workers announced a onslaught against the layoffs volition instrumentality spot today, Tuesday July 14, and proceed implicit the adjacent mates of days. A flyer advertizing the walkout claims that "51 unit volition suffer their jobs successful the coming weeks."

"After years of dedication to our team, the institution has turned its backmost connected us," the flyer states. "We volition ne'er spot the fruits of our labor, and the reward for our hard enactment volition beryllium the nonaccomplishment of our jobs."

Ubisoft plans for its Barcelona squad to present absorption solely connected the Rainbow Six franchise, IGN understands, arsenic portion of wider organizational changes that person seen repeated reshufflings and redunancies crossed the full company.

In March, Ubisoft confirmed that 105 unit were acceptable to depart seasoned Tom Clancy crippled workplace Red Storm Entertainment, arsenic portion of a determination that downsized the workplace permanently, pursuing 3 erstwhile waves of layoffs astatine the institution since 2022.

Ubisoft has chopped hundreds of unit and afloat closed galore studios successful caller times, with 2026 already disconnected to a brutal start. In January, the institution canceled six games including its Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake and closed 2 Ubisoft studios wholly (Ubisoft Stockholm and Ubisoft Halifax), portion making layoffs astatine its bureau successful Abu Dhabi, astatine Trials workplace RedLynx and astatine Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora outfit Massive Entertainment.

Just a week aft that, Ubisoft announced plans to ditch 200 jobs astatine its institution office successful Paris, starring to protests wrong the French capital. Next, successful February, Ubisoft was forced to reassure fans that its long-awaited Splinter Cell remake remained successful improvement aft 40 jobs were eliminated astatine its workplace Ubisoft Toronto.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social