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Ubisoft announced that the decision has been made to eliminate several positions from Red Storm Entertainment, the studio responsible for several games in the Tom Clancy franchise. This decision follows a slew of layoffs across the entire video game industry, including the publisher’s closure of its Leamington, UK studio earlier this year. Thankfully, this round of layoffs from Ubisoft will not impact as many employees, and the studio will keep its doors open.
While Ubisoft has managed to avoid making too many cuts to its workforce in 2025, the publisher hasn’t been able to dodge criticism or controversy related to other unpopular decisions. Perhaps the most notable example of this would be how Ubisoft’s decision to delist popular titles like The Crew indirectly inspired the creation of the Stop Killing Games movement. Recently, the Stop Killing Games petition reached 1 million signatures to try and convince the European Parliament to make changes to the laws regarding the delisting and deletion of video games.
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Ubisoft Announces Studio Closure and Layoffs
Ubisoft announces the closure of one of its studios and downsizing at other locations as layoffs continue to plague the gaming industry.
According to a report from IGN, Ubisoft has confirmed that 19 employees from Red Storm Entertainment studios have been laid off. In the official statement, the publisher explained that this decision was a cost-cutting move made as part of a targeted restructuring effort. Red Storm Entertainment was founded in 1996 with the help of Tom Clancy, but the most recent work from this studio has been as support for other Ubisoft departments. The Division: Heartland was the most recent project that this studio worked on, but it was unfortunately canceled last year.
Layoffs at Red Entertainment Studios Reveal Change in Focus for Ubisoft
In the context of recent mass layoffs by Microsoft and other companies, the loss of 19 employees is not necessarily as significant, but it’s never good news when developers are being let go across every sector of the video game industry. Considering that this studio has an almost 30-year history with legendary roots to Tom Clancy, it’s truly unfortunate that Ubisoft made this decision. That said, fans of Tom Clancy games might not have too much to worry about, as popular titles like Rainbow Six Siege were actually developed by Ubisoft Montreal.
All of these layoffs come amid reports that young Americans are spending considerably less on gaming. Although correlation is not causation, it would seem that these two issues are related to one another. After all, publishers are ostensibly restructuring in order to more directly meet the needs of the consumer, so it makes sense to cut costs in potentially wasteful areas and invest further into solving the problems of modern gamers. Even so, it remains to be seen whether such a decision was actually necessary.
