Ubisoft lays off 185 employees as it permanently closes its Ubisoft Leamington studio

The French gaming conglomerate Ubisoft is permanently closing down its UK-based studio, Ubisoft Leamington, which is based in Leamington Spas.

A Ubisoft spokesperson confirmed that the Ubisoft Leamington studio shutdown was part of a broader plan to restructure the company. The spokesperson also highlighted that the studio shutdown would lead to the layoff of 50 employees posted at the studio.

Ubisoft is also planning to downsize several studios across the conglomerate, including Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Reflections, and Ubisoft Stockholm. The spokesperson explained that the downsizing would, unfortunately, affect 185 employees in total, combined with the layoffs in Ubisoft Leamington. The video game company still appreciated the employees’ contributions, promising to support them during the transition. 

Ubisoft Leamington was previously owned by Activision Blizzard before being bought out by Ubisoft in 2017. The studio was known for its DJ Hero games before handling franchises like Call of Duty and Guitar Hero. The Leamington studio became a significant support studio for Ubisoft games, including Tom Clancy’s The Division, Far Cry 5, Star Wars Outlaws, and Skull and Bones. 

Based in Newcastle, Ubisoft Reflections is best known for its Driver series and worked closely with Ubisoft Leamington. Ubisoft Düsseldorf, based in Germany, is best known for one of its latest releases, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The studio has also worked on Rainbow Six Siege and The Settlers: New Allies. Ubisoft Stockholm is one of the newest Ubisoft studios and recently worked on Star Wars Outlaws with Massive Entertainment. 

Ubisoft lays off staff following closure of Ubisoft Leamington

The video game company has been laying off employees over the past two years due to several management issues. Ubisoft announced the laying off of 277 employees in December last year, further announcing the discontinuation of XDefiant on June 3, 2025. The company’s Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer, Marie-Sophie de Waubert, confirmed the less-than-enthusiastic reception the game received, failing to meet the expectations of Ubisoft’s management. 

Ubisoft also confirmed that underwhelming XDefiant performance would affect several employees who worked on the game. The video game company further revealed that it would be shutting down its Osaka and San Francisco production studios and downsizing the Ubisoft Sydney. The announcement highlighted that the San Francisco branch would lay off 143 employees, while the Osaka and Sydney branches would lay off 134 employees.

The platform still pointed out some of its more successful games, including Rainbow Six Siege, For Honor, and The Crew. Ubisoft also promised to put the company back on the growth track. The company planned to radically evolve its way of handling production, business, and marketing to achieve the best results.

A March 2024 Ubisoft financial year report revealed that the company laid off over 1,700 employees between September 2022 and March 31, 2024. With the rest of the layoffs in 2024 and 2025, the number of laid-off employees has closed to 2,500. The company also plans to reduce its expenditure by 200 million Euros by the 2026 financial year, which begins in April this year. 

The company delays the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Assassin's Creed Shadows will now release February 14, 2025. pic.twitter.com/J2ah7kkytW

— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) September 25, 2024

Ubisoft announced the delay of Assassin’s Creed Shadows in September last year, pushing the release date to February 14 this year. The company outlined the underwhelming performance of Star Wars Outlaws as the reason behind the delay. The video game conglomerate also highlighted that the delay would allow Ubisoft to make the game available on a variety of platforms, including Steam. 

The company still announced an addition of 1 month of development to the game in a January 9 strategic update, pushing the game’s launch date to March 20. The announcement highlighted the company’s expectations to better incorporate gamers’ feedback from the past few months to ensure a more successful game launch. 

Ubisoft also revealed it had appointed leading advisors to help the company create better strategies that create more value for stakeholders. Ubisoft’s CEO and co-founder, Yves Guillemot, mentioned that the actions taken by the company over the past few months would place it on a more positive track. Guillemot also explained that the decisions would create a better player experience in the future. 

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