All staff to return to full-time in-office work; changes will cause additional billion-euro loss in fiscal 2026 but "lay foundations for a return to midterm growth"

Ubisoft has confirmed in an interview the first details of its new Creative House structure, the cancellation of six unnamed projects and the delay of seven more, and a "final" round of cuts to deliver €200 million in savings, including the closure of several studios.

IGN reported that Ubisoft Stockholm will close, following the closure of Ubisoft Halifax last week.

The company intends for all staff to return to in-office working five days a week to support the new structure, in which each Creative House will have "end-to-end responsibility" for the brands it controls, supported by two new central divisions and overseen by Ubisoft HQ.

SVP of Studio Operations Marie Sophie du Waubert described it as "a radical change in the operating model" and "a major transformation laying the foundations for a return to midterm growth".

Vantage is one of five new Creative Houses, each of which control multiple brands and studios. | Image credit: Ubisoft

As part of the restructuring, the company set out a new three-year road map and "decided to discontinue several projects currently in development and to delay the release of certain games," du Waubert told GamesIndustry.biz, "in order to ensure they meet the enhanced quality standards that we are targeting, and to maximize long-term value." The company did not say which games this referred to, only that one title previously planned to release this quarter would move to the next financial year.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said in a press release that the company would "selectively close several studios and continue restructurings throughout the Group. While these decisions are difficult, they are necessary for us to build a more focused, efficient and sustainable organization over the long term."

"We had already initiated an internal transformation in recent years, which resulted in improved game quality in 2025," said du Waubert. "However, in a market that has become persistently more competitive, particularly across AAA titles and shooters, it’s necessary to go much further. When content quality reaches the highest standard, this market offers the potential for exceptional financial performance and the group must therefore complete its transformation."

The game delays and cancellations, along with suspending some strategic B2B partnerships previously expected to deliver revenue, will result in an additional operating loss of around a billion euros for the 2026 financial year, CFO Frederick Duguet told GamesIndustry.biz.

New structure

Du Waubert said the new Creative House structure, which will start operating in early April, will focus on two strategic segments of open-world adventure and "game-as-service-native experiences". Each Creative House will house multiple studios working on a set of the company’s gaming brands.

• Vantage Studios, announced last year, will work on Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six franchises. Ubisoft has previously said it will contain the Montréal, Quebec, Sherbrooke, Saguenay, Barcelona, and Sofia studios
• **Creative House 2 **will deliver competitive and co-op shooters, and will include brands like Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell and The Division
• Creative House 3 will make "select, sharp Live experiences" including Brawhalla, For Honor, Riders Republic, Skull and Bones and The Crew
• Creative House 4 will focus on immersive fantasy worlds and "narrative-driven universes" including Anno, Beyond Good and Evil, Might and Magic, Prince of Persia and Rayman
• Creative House 5 is focused on family-friendly and casual games, including Just Dance, UNO, Hungry Shark, Invincible: Guarding The Globe and the company’s licenced Hasbro titles.

The company will tell staff this week which studios will be part of each Creative House. The structure will be supported by two central divisions: a "Creative Network" of studios providing the Creative Houses with "best-in-class production capacity" and a "Core Services" division handling production services, technology and business operations. The new organization will be supervised by Ubisoft HQ, which will provide vision, strategy and capital allocation.

du Waubert said the new decentralized structure would have "more clearly defined accountability principles" with "decision-making being faster and closer to the full game creation process."

The Creative Houses will be supported by an internal studio network and a new business operations division. | Image credit: Ubisoft

"All creative houses will share the same objectives and same guiding principles," she said. "Each creative house will have end-to-end responsibility for their brand portfolios, both creatively and financially with strict resource allocation rules, combining production and publishing, including brand development and go- to-market strategy."

"Each house will have some dedicated studios. They will have their own distinct creative genre. They will have dedicated expert leadership accountable for its results, and able to attract top talent if we need some, with incentives aligned with long-term value creation."

Ubisoft is in the process of recruiting General Managers to lead each Creative House, and is considering both internal and external candidates with hires to be announced before April. The company was sued this week by Marc-Alexis Côté, the former head of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, who alleges he was unlawfully dismissed after the company transferred the franchise to a new leader at Vantage Studios.

Financial impact and upcoming cuts

Chief Financial Officer Frederick Duguet told GamesIndustry.biz that the restructuring, delays and other amendments would have a "non-cash impact in depreciation of our capitalized R&D for around €650 million, impacting fiscal 2026, on top of a gross margin reduction of €330 million that derives directly from a net booking reduction of €350 million. That adds up to around €1 billion operating non-IFRS operating loss, compared with the guidance that was previously around zero."

He characterised the changes as a "a deliberate choice for us to refocus our resources on the projects with the strongest potential, with the objective to increase quality meaningfully in the more selective market."

"We are reducing the number of products so that we have the best core teams for each and every project, in each and every genre."

Dugue said that the second stage of its ongoing restructuring program, delivering a €100 million saving, would be completed in March, a year ahead of schedule. This has included a series of layoffs across the company’s portfolio, with jobs lost at Massive, Ubisoft Stockholm, Ubisoft Halifax, Ubisoft Abu Dhabi and RedLynx.

Duguet said the "third and final phase" would have twice the impact, with €200 million in cost savings delivered over the next two years. When completed in 2028, the restructuring will have reduced the company’s fixed costs by half a billion euros compared to 2023, he said. The company will consider "potential asset divestment" as part of the process.

Returning to the office

To "support the implementation of this new operating model" the company intends to "return to five days per week on site for all teams," said de Waubert, "complemented by an annual allowance of working from home." She described it as "still a hybrid model, but spread differently."

"We really want to straighten onsite collaboration… we know that in-person collaboration and interactions are key enablers of efficiency, creativity, and collective success in this persistently selective market. It’s one enabler among others, but it’s really one we believe in."

"We will of course discuss with the employees and their representatives, and all the teams," added Duguet. "Collective dynamics, permanent knowledge sharing, solving problems together at a high velocity is critical in this world of AAA business. That’s the purpose and the intention that we want to further share with the teams." He described the new operating structure as "a major reset."

"We want to make sure that everything we’ve decided will allow the creative houses to succeed in their specific role," he said, "and we want them to be the best in the world on each and every segment where we are." He said the company will also be entering "a few additional segments" with four new IPs in development.

Our full interview with Duguet and du Waubert will be published shortly.