For a few days, it looked like Ubisoft Barcelona finally had something to celebrate. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, a remake the studio poured months into alongside 14 other Ubisoft teams, had just launched to genuinely strong reviews — an 84 on Metacritic, actually beating Assassin's Creed Shadows. Sales were solid. Critics were kind. For once, the internet wasn't dunking on Ubisoft.
Then, days later, the company laid off 51 people at that same studio.
That's 28% of the entire Barcelona workforce, gone — many of them people who had just spent the past year building the game everyone was praising. According to Insider Gaming, which broke the story on release day, the studio didn't even hold its usual internal launch celebration. Instead, staff got a small catering get-together. No party. No bonus. Just cake, and then the layoff notices.
Photo source: Ubisoft
Why This Wasn't Really About the Game
Here's the uncomfortable part: employees say the cuts were decided long before anyone knew how Black Flag Resynced would perform. Ubisoft normally assigns studios their next project up to a year in advance. Barcelona hadn't been given one since last summer. Staff told Insider Gaming they suspected something was coming well before launch day — no review score or sales number was going to change it.
One anonymous worker put it plainly, describing the layoffs as part of a deeper pattern at the company: constant instability, top-down decisions, and employees left with almost no say in what happens to them.
Barcelona won't close entirely — it's being restructured to focus solely on Rainbow Six going forward. But that's cold comfort to the 51 people losing their jobs.
The Bigger Picture at Ubisoft
This isn't an isolated incident. It's part of a rough stretch for Ubisoft that includes:
- Shuttering its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios entirely
- Cutting 40 jobs in Toronto and 105 at Red Storm
- Closing the newly unionized Halifax studio (70 roles)
- Trimming staff in Stockholm and at Massive Entertainment
All told, Ubisoft has cut more than 500 jobs in 2026 alone, even after Tencent poured $1.25 billion into the company earlier this year. The company reported a €1.3 billion loss for the fiscal year and net bookings down double digits — numbers that explain the cost-cutting, even if they don't make it feel any less brutal for the people affected.
Workers Are Striking — Here's the Schedule
Photo source: Tom Henderson
Barcelona staff aren't taking it quietly. Organized through the Spanish union CGT, employees began striking on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons starting June 30, with the action running through July 17, six strikes total over three weeks.
Their demands are specific:
- Job protection for all 51 affected employees
- No mass layoffs for at least five years
- Honoring internal promotions that were frozen
- A return to 60% remote work
- A review of salaries and benefits
Whether Ubisoft budges remains to be seen. But the message from Barcelona to other developers is clear : shipping a good game isn't job security anymore.
