Employees at Ubisoft Barcelona have launched a strike campaign to challenge severance terms they describe as inadequate, after the studio announced plans to eliminate up to 51 positions. The layoffs are part of a sweeping reduction that will affect 380 workers across multiple Ubisoft offices worldwide.
Around 90 staff members participated in a walkout yesterday, displaying banners bearing the message "Corporate Greed" styled after the Assassin's Creed franchise. A second strike is scheduled for Thursday. Negotiations are underway to preserve some roles and negotiate better compensation packages for departing employees.
The severance offer has become a flashpoint in negotiations. One affected employee told IGN that the proposed payments fall well below industry expectations and fall short of what Ubisoft offered in previous layoff rounds at the same studio. "The job positions themselves seem quite definite, and the Assassin's Creed team has been certainly cut," the employee said, though discussions continue about potentially transitioning some staff to the Rainbow Six franchise.
The timing of the layoffs has drawn particular scrutiny given Barcelona's contribution to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, which sold 2 million copies within its first day. While Ubisoft Singapore led the remake's development, Barcelona handled significant portions of the work. Beyond the underwater diving missions the studio is known for contributing, it also developed multiple main quests, the in-game region of Gibara, enemy combat AI, and boss encounters across more than two years of development. Several of these elements were featured in pre-release hands-on previews.
Ubisoft confirmed the proposed restructuring in a statement, stating that Barcelona would be refocused exclusively on Rainbow Six projects under the new plan. The company indicated that no final decision will be made until a collective consultation process concludes, and promised commitment to "constructive dialogue" with employee representatives.
The Barcelona cuts are the latest chapter in a brutal cycle of cuts at Ubisoft. In January 2026, the publisher canceled six games including Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, shut down Ubisoft Stockholm and Ubisoft Halifax entirely, and trimmed staff at offices in Abu Dhabi, RedLynx, and Massive Entertainment. A week later, 200 jobs were eliminated at Ubisoft's Paris headquarters, triggering protests. February brought another round of cuts affecting 40 positions at Ubisoft Toronto as the studio worked on the Splinter Cell remake. By March, Red Storm Entertainment announced it would lose 105 staff as part of a permanent downsizing, following three previous reduction waves since 2022.
Author Emily Chen: "Hard to square offering severance 'below any reasonable standard' with a game that flew off the shelves in 24 hours."
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