Ubisoft is moving forward with a proposal to reduce headcount at its Paris-based headquarters in France, outlining a voluntary departure plan that could affect up to 200 roles. The move comes as the publisher pushes through a broader company “reset” designed to tighten spending, simplify decision-making, and concentrate resources on fewer projects with a higher bar for quality and long-term performance.
Ubisoft has emphasized that the process is a proposal rather than a finalized decision. The company has entered discussions around a French legal mechanism known as a Rupture Conventionnelle Collective (RCC), which enables collectively negotiated, voluntary mutual termination agreements. In practical terms, eligible employees can choose whether to participate, while the final framework requires negotiation with employee representatives and validation through the appropriate French administrative process. Ubisoft has said the proposal is limited to Ubisoft International employees under French contracts and is not intended to affect other French entities or Ubisoft teams outside France.
The plan lands shortly after Ubisoft detailed a major internal overhaul on January 21, 2026. In that announcement, the publisher said it will reorganize around five specialized “Creative Houses,” aiming to align game development and go-to-market functions under clearer genre-focused leadership. Ubisoft described its strategy as prioritizing open-world adventures and games-as-a-service experiences, while also increasing emphasis on technology initiatives—among them player-facing generative AI—intended to support production and product evolution over time.
That reset includes significant pipeline changes. Ubisoft said it has discontinued six games that do not meet its updated quality and prioritization criteria, including the long-delayed Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. The discontinued slate also includes four unannounced titles—three of them new IP—as well as a mobile project. At the same time, Ubisoft said it will allocate additional development time to seven games to hit higher quality benchmarks and maximize long-term value, including an unannounced title that moved from a fiscal year 2025–26 target to fiscal year 2026–27.
Cost reduction is a central theme of the strategy, and the Paris proposal sits inside that direction. Ubisoft said its current plan targets at least €100 million in fixed-cost savings compared with fiscal year 2024–25 and is expected to be fully achieved by March 2026, earlier than previously planned. Building on that, the company set a new objective to reduce its fixed cost base by an additional €200 million over the next two years, pushing cumulative fixed-cost reductions since fiscal year 2022–23 to roughly €500 million. In the company’s framing, these targets are meant to stabilize operations, enforce capital discipline, and create room for sustained investment in fewer, higher-priority releases.
Ubisoft also outlined changes to how and where teams work. The publisher said it intends to return to five days per week on site for all teams, complemented by an annual allowance of working-from-home days, arguing that more in-person collaboration will support execution discipline and faster iteration. On the studio footprint side, the company said it has already closed its Halifax mobile studio and its Stockholm studio, while also referencing restructurings at several other locations as it rightsizes parts of the organization.
The company’s updated outlook helps explain the urgency behind these measures. Ubisoft said it expects net bookings of around €1.5 billion and non-IFRS EBIT of around -€1 billion for fiscal year 2025–26, while noting that forward-looking expectations are subject to market risks and uncertainties. In other words, Ubisoft is attempting a turnaround while still funding blockbuster development and managing the realities of a more selective AAA marketplace.
The situation also mirrors wider conditions across the games industry. Market research forecasts still place the global games business at roughly $188.8 billion in 2025 revenue, with an estimated 3.6 billion players worldwide. Yet profitability pressures have remained intense, and staffing reductions have continued across many major publishers and studios. Industry layoff trackers estimate roughly 14,600 job cuts were recorded across gaming in 2024 and about 5,300 in 2025, reflecting a multi-year correction as companies recalibrate growth expectations, re-scope projects, and respond to rising production costs.
For Ubisoft, the near-term question is what a smaller Paris headquarters means in practice—and how quickly the company’s new structure translates into a steadier release pipeline. Until negotiations conclude and a collective agreement is validated, the RCC plan remains a proposal. Even so, it reinforces the message Ubisoft has been delivering: fewer projects, more time on select releases, and a leaner cost base as the company tries to rebuild momentum in an increasingly competitive market.
News written by Mike.
