Ubisoft’s big “bloodletting”: Studios are running away from the developers in droves

A new report addresses the departure of many Ubisoft employees. The Canadian studios are particularly affected.

Ubisoft’s Canadian studios are struggling with many layoffs, according to a new insider report. The whole thing goes so far that it is referred to as the “great exodus” or “bloodletting”. Ubisoft Montreal, responsible for Rainbow Six Siege and Assassin’s Creed, and the Far Cry studio Ubisoft Toronto have together lost at least 120 employees in the last six months, according to the report. And those are only those that could be traced back through LinkedIn. We will inform you about this development.

Insider report gives numbers

It’s all about this: Axios.com shared some information about a development at Ubisoft called the “Great Exodus”. According to the report, the Canadian studios are particularly affected. When researching the LinkedIn platform, Axios found that the Ubisoft Toronto and Montreal teams each lost at least 60 employees – within six months. But what do these numbers mean?

Fluctuation in comparison: The fluctuation rate at Ubisoft is 12 percent according to its own information. That’s not a low number. For comparison, Axios gives the rates of EA with 9, Take Two with 8 and Epic Games with 7 percent. At the scandal-ridden publisher Activision Blizzard, however, the rate is even higher at 16 percent.

Numbers refer to the entire company: However, it is important to note that the 12 percent relates to Ubisoft as a whole – with 20,000 employees and 50 studios around the world. If we were to just take a look at the Canadian studios mentioned above, the rate, which is already comparatively high, would be even higher.

The team responsible for Far Cry 6 has lost some developers.

Reasons for fluctuation

Competition and Pay: One reason for the departure of developers is quite simply the competition at the Canadian locations. As Axios found out, some former Ubisoft employees have received lucrative offers from competitors. Ubisoft responded by raising salaries in Canada.

Work culture issue: But the sexism problem, which has been the subject of insiders’ discussion for several years, should also play a role. On the one hand, misconduct in the company, as Axios reports, has resulted in some powerful men leaving Ubisoft, and on the other, voices are repeatedly raised saying that not enough is being done about the problem. 1000 current and former employees signed a letter criticizing this.

Axios quotes a person employed in the company about the departure of colleagues with the following words:

After that, however, the quoted person adds a big “but”:

How dramatic is the situation?

In order to answer the question, it must be emphasized again that the Canadian studios in particular are affected. Axios states that among those who have left the company there are also some particularly important developers:

At least 5 of the top 25 developers who were responsible for Far Cry 6 and 12 of the top 50 people in charge of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla would have left the company. People who currently work for Ubisoft reported to Axios that the high turnover is already having a negative impact on projects. For example, there is talk of delays or the fact that people with the appropriate prior knowledge are missing at certain points.

Ubisoft itself stated to Axios that it had hired 2,600 new employees since April. Axios adds that there have been more than 4,500 new hires in each of the previous two full years. As a result, there are currently numerous job advertisements at Ubisoft, for example for the new Splinter Cell. We are looking for programmers as well as managers.