Despite Ubisoft seeing quite a bit of success with the recent launch of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the company continues its cost-cutting efforts, with its Barcelona studio being the latest hit by layoffs. Several former employees have spoken out about celebrating the title’s success by losing their jobs.
As caught by Kotaku, QA lead Isabel Codina García took to LinkedIn to note that “After 7 years at Ubisoft Barcelona, this is not how I imagined it would end.” She went on to say that she was “genuinely grateful for the people I have met and everything I have learned along the way.”
“Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced releases today, the project I have been working on for the past 2.5 years,” García continued. “However, two weeks before launch, the whole AC team at Ubisoft Barcelona was informed of a collective redundancy plan (ERE). Vantage Studios has stated there will not be further mandates for the Barcelona studio, despite the team proposing new AC projects.”
Ubisoft’s Paris studio programmer Matoui Chakib Souleyman supported the Barcelona studio after its layoffs.
“All my thoughts on this Assassin’s Creed Black Flag release day go to my colleagues at Ubisoft Barcelona, who have worked on the game and are undergoing a layoff. Without them, the game would not make it to release day.”
Reports about the layoffs first popped up in the final week of June, with employees announcing that they were going on strike to protest the decision. The Video Game Union Coordinating Committee said that the strikes will take place on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons between June 30th and July 16th, totalling up to six strikes over three weeks.
About 51 of Ubisoft Barcelona’s employees are said to be affected by the layoffs, and workers have demanded that the publisher reverse this decision and provide job security guarantees to shield it from future layoffs for at least 5 years. The layoffs would culminate in the studio losing almost a third of its workforce.
Sadly, a report by Insider Gaming also indicates that Ubisoft’s cost-cutting plans go well beyond just layoffs. For instance, the launch party for Resynced at the Barcelona studio was cancelled and replaced by a “small catering get-together at the studio.”
In the meantime, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is out now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S and has managed to hit almost 100,000 concurrent players on Steam alone. Despite this, the title has also faced some backlash. Its Steam review aggregate sits at “Mixed”, with 45 percent of its reviews being positive. Complaints largely revolve around additional microtransaction packs not included in the Deluxe Edition.
For more details, take a look at our review, where we gave it a 9 out of 10.
