Insider Gaming has gotten hold of some new internal memos from Ubisoft, and this one goes into some unsavory details.
As they report, these were memos informing their employees that they were laid off. While Ubisoft has been having layoffs in response to industry trends since 2023, Insider Gaming claims these memos are for the layoffs they announced at the start of this week. Obviously, if these memos are not subject to NDAs, Ubisoft employees may be violating other worker agreements, or even some employer laws, by leaking them. So we don’t think NDAs or something similar would have been a factor for these leaks. If Ubisoft finds out who these leakers are, they’re likely to face legal consequences.
But if you read the text of these memos, one could understand why Ubisoft’s employees would want to leak them. We’ll jump straight to the paragraph with the notorious phrase:
“I understand the uncertainty these changes will bring. We are committed to supporting everyone who may be impacted during this transition. Let me assure you, these decisions were not made lightly. We believe they are essential to improve our operational efficiency and ensure the long-term sustainability of our studios, the zone and the company.”
This memo was written by Production Zone 4 Managing Director Benedikt Grindel in Ubisoft Dusseldorf. Ubisoft made the decision to lay off 65 employees for this Dusseldorf location. While one can certainly speculate if Grindel is sincere in his claim that “these decisions were not made lightly,” we will point out something else.
In these internal memos, game companies will communicate things that they wouldn’t tell the public, and certainly not their consumers, the gamers. While it’s true that game companies have been caught lying to their employees in the past, usually they will share confidential information to ensure their employees, especially the ones they chose to keep, will be properly informed and stay on the same page as they are on.
So the phrase “improve our operational efficiency” may sound like doublespeak to justify laying off workers, but we think it suggests something else. It suggests that Ubisoft is preparing to become a considerably smaller company.
That smaller Ubisoft will be easier for the Guillemots to sell, whether the buyer turns out to be TenCent or if they find a deal with someone else. It also means that Ubisoft will be mostly making Assassin’s Creed games in the future, and they may not be able to make them as often, or as big as they have been making them.
Overall, it’s another sign that Ubisoft is caught in the middle of a transition, and when that change happens the industry will shake alongside it. For now, we wish Ubisoft’s employees the best, and that those of us who have left the company can find their way back into the industry.
