In a noteworthy move, Ubisoft has decided to shut down its UK studio located in Leamington, as reported by Eurogamer. This decision comes amidst a broader restructuring effort affecting three other studios, leading to job redundancies across the company.
### Ubisoft Shuts Leamington Studio, Cutting 185 Jobs
The Leamington studio, which employed 50 people, will see some of its team continue on remote contracts temporarily. Meanwhile, Ubisoft is also reorganizing its offices in Düsseldorf, Stockholm, and Newcastle (known as Ubisoft Reflections), which will result in a total of 185 job losses.
A spokesperson from Ubisoft commented, “As part of our ongoing strategy to prioritize certain projects and manage costs to ensure Ubisoft’s long-term stability, we’ve announced targeted restructurings at the Düsseldorf, Stockholm, and Reflections sites, as well as permanently closing our Leamington location. Sadly, this impacts 185 of our team members overall. We are immensely grateful for their contributions and promise to support them through this challenging period.”
Established in 2002 as FreeStyle Games, Ubisoft Leamington made a name for itself with the DJ Hero series. They were also behind the 2015 release Guitar Hero Live, which introduced significant changes to the game’s guitar peripheral. Ubisoft acquired the studio in 2017, and it has since functioned as a support studio.
This closure follows closely on the heels of Ubisoft’s recent announcement about shutting down its San Francisco and Osaka studios just under two months ago, along with the discontinuation of its free-to-play shooter XDefiant. Players will still have access to the game until June.
Earlier this month, Ubisoft released information on their plans to boost “operational efficiency,” aligning this restructuring with a new partnership with Tencent. Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft co-founder, elaborated, “We’ve made decisive changes to reshape our organization to offer top-tier player experiences, heighten operational efficiency, and maximize value creation. We’ve also brought on leading advisors and are actively exploring a range of strategic and capital options to fully realize the value of our assets. We firmly believe there are multiple paths to generate significant value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises.”
Source: Eurogamer
