Despite what certain people will tell you, it hasn’t been the best or smoothest year for gaming, and 2023 wasn’t that way either due to all the layoffs that happened within the industry. In 2023, 10,000 people lost their jobs, all told, and 2024 is going to trump that as we enter the back half of the year. It seems like almost every other day or week, there’s an announcement about a layoff or a company getting shut down, and it’s rather depressing. A few days ago, Ubisoft added itself to the list by releasing a couple dozen people from its Toronto office.
PC Gamer got a statement from the company about this, and they noted it was a “targeted realignment” to help them reach future goals:
“Ubisoft Toronto has decided to conduct a targeted realignment to ensure it can deliver on its ambitious roadmap. Unfortunately, this will impact the roles of 33 team members who will be leaving Ubisoft. We are committed to providing comprehensive support to them, including severance and career assistance, to help through this transition.”
While that last part is hopefully something that truly comes to pass, a layoff is still a layoff. Just as important, there’s a grand irony to these particular departures at the company. You see, this team was recently announced to have joined in helping the Prince of Persia Sands of Time Remake, which has been in the works for many years and recently got a “new release window” of 2026. Yet, not long after, they announced that they were doing layoffs! That’s not how this is supposed to work. Plus, the Toronto office was working on something else before being added to that game, so they’re working on, at the minimum, two different projects while now having 33 fewer people trying to make it all work.
However, the publisher doesn’t seem worried…
“Our plan remains unchanged, and our teams are working to deliver on the Splinter Cell remake and other projects at the studio.”
That’s all well and good to say, but Ubisoft hasn’t been making the best of titles recently. The quality of them has been rather hit-or-miss, and many are worried about future titles they have in the works. Having a smaller staff may seem like a way to “save money,” but if you need those people to make the products that MAKE YOU THE MONEY, it’s going to backfire in the end. Sadly, many developers and publishers seem to have forgotten this fact, and thus, the layoffs will continue.