Ubisoft have reportedly laid off all of the game developers at Red Storm Entertainment, with the long-time Tom Clancy studio being repurposed from a place where games are developed to a place that just provides behind-the-scenes tech support. 105 staff have lost their jobs in this downsizing, which follows the cancellation of Red Storm’s The Division Heartland in 2024.
This is according to reports from VGC and IGN with the former noting Ubisoft announced the news internally today, March 19th.
Rather than shutting down Red Storm, the publishers have opted to downsize the North Carolina-based studio by ripping out all of their game development innards, leaving a shell that’ll provide global IT and Snowdrop engine support.
Founded back in 1996 by Tom Clancy himself, Red Storm developed a laundry list of classic games based on the author’s books – including 1998’s Rainbow Six and 2001’s Ghost Recon. Both of those evolved into long-running series following the studio’s acquisition by Ubisoft in 2000. Following the release of 2012’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Red Storm went off on a lengthy detour into the VRsphere, making the likes of Star Trek: Bridge Crew and Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR.
Two of their most recent works were moves back towards their Tom Clancy roots, but both a Splinter Cell VR game and The Division Heartland being canned before they could see the light of day. It’s a truly depressing end for a studio with such an illustrious history and who’ve contributed so much to the FPS genre over the years.
Ubisoft have been ruthlessly gouging away at their studios and games this year as part of some corporate restructuring, unleashing a raft of cancellations, delays, and closures in January. Strikes have followed amid job cuts at the Assassin’s Creed publishers.
Solidarity and best of luck to the 105 devs affected by these Red Storm layoffs.
