Job losses to be made at Newcastle video games studio amid European shake-up

Jobs losses are set to be made at a Tyneside video games studio responsible for blockbuster games including Assassin’s Creed, amid a group shake-up.

Ubisoft Reflections forms part of the global group Ubisoft, the French headquartered business with more than 45 studios around the world, creating some of the biggest and best selling video games on the market. Last month, however, the firm’s bosses in Paris announced they had appointed advisors to take “decisive steps” to reshape the group amid efforts to make cost reductions of around €200m.

Now the Newcastle business has announced that it is set to make 185 job losses across a number of European sites, with a total of 100 redundancies set to be made across its Ubisoft Reflections studio in Newcastle and Ubisoft Leamington sites. Its base in Leamington, which has 128 employees, will also close permanently.

The announcement follows on from the publication of Ubisoft Reflections’ accounts for the year ended March 2024, in which it saw a 12% jump in revenues to £56.3m. The studio marked its 40th anniversary last year and has worked on some of the world’s best-loved games, including Ravenskull and Shadow of the Beast in the 1980s, Driver, Destruction Derby and Stuntman in the 1990s and 2000s, and Grow Home and Grow Up in the 2010s. The studio has also produced bestsellers Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s The Division and Watch Dogs.

A statement from Ubisoft reads: “As part of our ongoing efforts to prioritize projects and reduce costs that ensure long-term stability at Ubisoft, we have announced targeted restructurings at Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Stockholm and Ubisoft Reflections and the permanent closure of Ubisoft Leamington site.

“Unfortunately, this should impact 185 employees overall, including approximately 100 positions across Ubisoft Leamington and Ubisoft Reflections. We are deeply grateful for their contributions and are committed to supporting them through this transition.”

A spokesman for Ubisoft said it doesn’t yet know specific numbers of redundancies expected to be made in Newcastle, which currently has 201 employees, as the redundancy consultation process has only just begun, so the numbers are not decided between each location at the moment.

On January 9, Ubisoft announced to shareholders that they had appointed leading advisors to “review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options” to get the best value for stakeholders. In a strategic update, the firm said: “Ubisoft is taking decisive steps to reshape the group in order to deliver best-in-class player experiences, enhance operational efficiency and maximize value creation.