A cure worse than the disease? The shock method that the French video game giant Ubisoft will administer to relaunch itself, combining new organization and drastic cuts, plunged the group to its lowest level on the markets on Thursday and arouses the concern of its employees.
Thursday morning, Ubisoft’s stock collapsed by more than 34% on the Paris Stock Exchange, the biggest drop in its history.
Investors are sanctioning the latest announcements from management: a major internal upheaval which will bring together part of its studios, distributed throughout the world, by specialty, while another part will serve as support for the various projects.
Scheduled for the beginning of April and coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the French video game leader, this reorganization is accompanied by drastic measures: six games canceled, including the remake highly anticipated by fans of “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”, seven others postponed, and a new cost reduction plan of at least 200 million euros over two years, in addition to the 300 million already granted over the last three years.
Projected loss of a billion
Direct consequence of this reorientation: the creator of the “Assassin’s Creed” saga now forecasts an operational loss of one billion euros for its 2025-2026 fiscal year.
“I am very worried about the state of health of the group,” Cédric (name changed at his request), an employee at Ubisoft’s Paris studio, told AFP. “I can understand the idea of going for a more financially sustainable model, but it comes at the cost of a lot of layoffs and studio closures,” he worries.
A fate that those in Stockholm and Halifax have experienced in recent weeks, while the group has carried out restructuring at Ubisoft Abu Dhabi, Redlynx (Finland) and Massive (Sweden).
The French number 1, which has around 17,000 employees worldwide, has let go of more than 3,000 employees in recent years. If the French studios have been spared so far, the social climate could become tense very quickly, with management having also indicated that it wanted to drastically reduce teleworking.
“Going back to five days a week, with family life and parental organization, it’s impossible to imagine that today,” breathes Cédric.
Several strikes paralyzed studios in France in 2024 to defend remote working in particular.
Call for walkout in France
The Solidaires Informatique union also called on French employees to walk out on Thursday morning.
In the long term, bringing together its studios by expertise is however “an excellent idea”, judges Laurent Michaud, sector economist, because “Ubisoft is banking on its first asset: its individual talents”. Even if it means sacrificing certain projects, deemed not good or profitable enough, like “Prince of Persia”.
“It has happened several times at Ubisoft and other major publishers to kill games because the project is not moving forward,” underlines Laurent Michaud, especially since this adventure game no longer fully corresponds to what the video game market expects in 2026, which gives pride of place to shooting games, sports games or playable with others.
But other projects have been saved: “Beyond Good & Evil 2”, in gestation for almost 20 years, continues its development, indicates Ubisoft.
Because canceling games “is throwing a lot of money in the trash,” observes Lionel Melka, partner at Swann Capital. “It will do a lot of damage to their reputation” because “there is a very strong emotional aspect” between players and certain popular sagas. For him, this radical decision shows that Ubisoft is now “in survival mode”. He fears seeing the group plunge a little further into “a spiral where the worse things go, the more people leave”.
However, no player in the sector wants to see the French giant fall. “The video game ecosystem in France owes a lot to Ubisoft,” underlines Laurent Michaud, “it would be very bad news if it did not manage to get by.”
Because behind the greatest French successes of recent years, starting with the surprise success of 2025 “Clair Obscur: Expedition 33”, there are very often former employees of the French giant.
