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GRTV News - Ubisoft makes layoffs, closes down Leamington Spa studio

Things aren't looking good for Ubisoft right now.

Audio transcription

"Hello there, welcome back to GRTV News, I'm Alex as usual going over the afternoons, latest and greatest when it comes to technology, entertainment and of course gaming, whatever you like, whatever you love, we have it here for you at GRTV News and in the wider Gamereactor network as a whole, so if you like what you see and you want to see more, be sure to check out Gamereactor wherever you get it from for more gaming, previews, reviews, movie reviews, series reviews, news, exclusives, interviews, anything that ends with views, of course you can find it here, but without further ado, today we're getting into some unfortunate news regarding Ubisoft, specifically the Leamington Spa Studio, which is their studio in the south of, over here in the UK, and 185 employees across the Leamington Spa Studio and a bunch of other studios have been made redundant, once again 2025 seems to hold quite a similar trend as 2023 and 2024 when it comes to gaming jobs, where just not very many of them are lasting and companies are cutting consistently, even sometimes despite performance, but any case we're talking Ubisoft today and as Ben writes here, it's been reported by Eurogamer that Ubisoft has decided to cut 185 jobs across Germany, the UK and Sweden, so it's Dusseldorf and Stockholm offices are being downsized, the Newcastle based Ubisoft Reflections as well is being downsized and Leamington Spa is being shut entirely, now not everyone from Leamington Spa Studio is being laid off, there are some people who are going to be left on retainer contracts for remote work, but the studio itself is shutting down and won't be sort of reopened. Ubisoft said basically that this is a part of ongoing efforts to prioritise projects and reduce costs and ensure long-term stability at Ubisoft and is deeply grateful for the contributions that these people have had over the years, which is probably not going to be a nice sort of message to get when you wake up presumably thinking that you're going to have a job. However, the Leamington Spa Studio isn't exactly known for much, it's last sort of major game was DJ Hero, which it created when it was Freestyle Games under the Activision label before it was sold to Ubisoft in 2017, as Ben writes here, so it's not exactly a studio that perhaps might be known, but it will definitely have been helping out with a lot of Ubisoft projects, again everything sort of works under the Ubisoft banner, although there are some studios that stand out like Massive Entertainment that did Star Wars Outlaws for example and Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, but again there's a lot of help, that's just how game development works nowadays. But yes, this is really, really unfortunate news and again another sort of load of layoffs. Ubisoft has taken a few hits in recent months, so in terms of its finances, so we weren't exactly surprised by this when the news broke this morning, but it certainly isn't something that's going to be sort of looked upon in a positive light. Ubisoft seems in a really dire position at the minute, with Assassin's Creed Shadows being sort of the linchpin of its entire future and if that doesn't go well, well it seems that we will be looking at a very different Ubisoft, for better or for worse. What do you think, is it going to be for better or for worse for the gaming if Ubisoft sort of can't pull itself together? Do you think it will pull itself together? What do you think about game studios closing in general and the trend that we're seeing these past couple of years? Let me know all that and more and I'll see you tomorrow for some more GRTV news. Goodbye!"

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