Ubisoft is reportedly experiencing a wave of internal turmoil, which is said to have gotten to a point of employees openly "shaming" upper management, according to an established company insider. The unrest is understood to steam from Ubisoft's ongoing restructuring efforts.
Over the past several years, Ubisoft has faced growing business challenges following the underperformance of several big-budget titles. Tencent, already a minority shareholder, alleviated some of the resulting financial pressures with a €1.2 billion (~$1.25 billion) lifeline given last October in exchange for a roughly 26% stake in a new Ubisoft subsidiary called Vantage Studios, which now oversees the company’s most valuable franchises: Assassin's Creed, Rainbow Six, and Far Cry. Three months later, Ubisoft announced a broader restructuring, reorganizing its operations into five Creative Houses, with Vantage being the first. At the same time, the company announced doubling down on cost-cutting efforts and issued a return-to-office mandate, citing the need to better "support" the implementation of the new structure.
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The recent wave of changes is said to have agitated a significant number of employees. Longtime Ubisoft insider Tom Henderson reports that the company's internal comms have been full of messages from disgruntled staffers since January 21, saying some of them are openly "shaming upper management and asking for change." According to his sources, a number of existing employees described the latest round of restructuring and cost-cutting efforts as the final straw that prompted them to start looking for a new job. Henderson concluded that the current atmosphere points to a "massive exodus of talent" being on the horizon, irrespective of any Ubisoft layoffs that are planned in the near future.
Ubisoft May Have Anticipated Current Employee Backlash
Given the unilateral and absolute return-to-office (RTO) mandate issued by Ubisoft earlier this week, there is a non-zero chance that the current employee backlash is an anticipated—or even intended—outcome by company leadership. While rarely stated outright, RTO mandates are a well-documented and effective method of encouraging so-called "soft layoffs," particularly when companies aim to reduce headcount without incurring the financial costs of formal layoffs. A 2024 study by Bamboo HR found that one in four C-suite executives in the U.S. Admitted to hoping for some degree of voluntary turnover when implementing such mandates. With Ubisoft already signaling plans for further layoffs later in 2026, it is plausible the company would not oppose a portion of staff choosing to leave voluntarily in the near term.
In the meantime, the company is facing renewed financial pressures. Ubisoft stock is currently at a 15-year low following continued investor sell-off, largely driven by uncertainty about the group's long-term prospects. This decline makes financing projects through borrowing more costly, not least because stock-based collateral loses value. It also hampers talent acquisition and retention, particularly for senior positions that often rely heavily on stock-based compensation.
In late 2024, Ubisoft had over 18,600 employees. As of early 2026, that number is still north of 17,000, making it the sixth-largest game publisher in the world by headcount. While it is unclear how much further the company plans to reduce staffing, it has repeatedly emphasized the need to lower employee numbers and improve operational efficiency. The recent restructuring also led to the cancellation of the long-awaited Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, along with five other titles. One of those is said to be a mobile game, as per a January 21 Jason Schreier report. The remaining four have not been identified by any credible source.
The ongoing restructuring also saw Ubisoft delay seven projects that were initially planned to release during its fiscal year 2026. Each of them has been moved to the following fiscal year, which runs from April 2026 through March 2027. The long-rumored Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag remake is believed to be among them.