Ubisoft has yet again made 45 cuts from its Cary and San Francisco studios for the second time this year. In the first round that happened months ago, 45 people were let go—the same as this time. The cut happened across Ubisoft San Francisco and Cary, North Carolina-based Red Storm Entertainment.
Red Storm focuses on the Tom Clancy franchise while Ubisoft San Francisco was the studio behind XDefiant, Rocksmith, and South Park: The Fractured but Whole. According to a Bloomberg report, the company’s spokesperson said the layoff was a “difficult yet necessary decision… to align these studios’ organizations with their future business and development objectives”.
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The report also mentioned that impacted employees would receive career assistance as well as severance packages. Back in May, Ubisoft announced the cancellation of The Division Heartland which was being developed by Red Storm Entertainment.
“Red Storm is steadfast in its mission to adapt and grow in order to reach new audiences and create top-quality, innovative gaming experiences,” the company said on its LinkedIn profile. “With access to the best tools and a proven formula for success, Red Storm Entertainment is poised to take advantage of the endless opportunities provided by the next generation of gaming.”
Mayank Grover, the founder and CEO of Outscal expressed surprise at the layoff at Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft San Francisco saying, “This comes as quite a shock as XDefiant’s release a month ago was well-received and is being deemed as the next COD killer”.
Well, contrary to Grover’s opinion, XDefiant was not so well-received. The game’s highest average metascore on Metacritic was 72 on Xbox. That figure dropped to 58 on PS5 and 67 on PC. The layoff at Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft San Francisco happened last week. Also, Ubisoft Toronto cut roles last month—although it is unclear how many people were impacted by that decision.
Impacted Red Storm Entertainment employees air their views
What we noticed with this current layoff round is that many of those impacted have spent over a decade in the company. Currently, it appears experience counts for nothing in the game industry. Several former Red Storm Entertainment employees have written about the layoff on LinkedIn.
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“After 13 fulfilling years at Ubisoft & Red Storm, I’ve been impacted by recent layoffs and am now open to new opportunities,” wrote communications, partnerships, engagement, and monetization specialist Vincent Clark. “While this chapter closes, I’m excited about what lies ahead and am eager to bring my skills and experience in the entertainment industry to a new team.”
Producer Joshua Barber announced that he was affected while taking a swipe at XDefiant. “Sad to say today is my last day with Ubisoft and working on Xdefiant (def not the cod killer after all 😂) After almost 3 years of fighting for the right changes and working with the best team imaginable I was hit with company layoffs.”
Keith Evans, former creative director at Red Storm Entertainment was also cut loose from the company after spending a decade there. However, he said he was leaving “with immense pride for the passion” he brought “to The Division brand and wish everyone still with the studio the very best of luck.”
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The layoffs this year have already exceeded 10,000. Although the frequency of layoffs and the number of impacted employees has declined in the last few months, the industry is still not out of the woods.
GameBaba Universe included a link to the profiles of everyone mentioned in this post so that anyone with an open opportunity can easily reach out to them.
