Ubisoft unions call for strike in response to company’s restructuring plans

The call for a walkout comes a week after Ubisoft informed investors of a “major organizational, operational, and portfolio reset” that will consolidate the company’s studios into five “Creative Houses,” with each one focusing on specific franchises or genres. As part of that plan, the company will close two studios, Ubisoft Stockholm and Ubisoft Halifax (whose employees just unionized in December, and which could lead to legal action by the media union CWA Canada). The company will also lay off staff at its Abu Dhabi office, its Paris headquarters, and the studios behind the Trials and The Division series. It also disclosed the cancellation of six games in development, only one of which has been publicly revealed: the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake that was announced all the way back in 2020. An additional seven games have been delayed, including one scheduled for a March 2026 release that is believed to be a remaster of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. The company also revised its expected net bookings for 2025-26 downward by almost $400 million. 

In a joint statement released through the STJV’s Bluesky account, the unions charge that employees only found out about all of these changes at the same time the press did, decrying the lack of dialogue with workers and disrespect shown to them. They also note that workers had been “negotiating for over a year on remote work policy,” only to find out it was being eliminated entirely. “We are not fooled,” it reads. “Rather than taking financial responsibility for layoffs, they prefer to push us out by making our working conditions unbearable. It’s outrageous.” 

It’s been a rough decade for the games industry. About 45,000 jobs are estimated to have been lost between 2022 and 2025, with thousands of them coming from earlier layoffs at Ubisoft. As unpopular as Ubisoft’s plans no doubt are with most of its employees, it’s unclear if the French unions’ call for an international strike will inspire any coordinated action among the company’s North American studios. The closing Halifax studio was the only unionized studio, leaving no union members at any of Ubisoft’s studios on this side of the Atlantic.