Ubisoft cut staff at Splinter Cell devs Ubisoft Toronto, as part of their push to save €200 million

Ubisoft are laying off around 40 people at Ubisoft Toronto, the studio behind the forthcoming remake of the original Splinter Cell. That’s approximately eight percent of the studio headcount. It’s all in the service of Ubisoft’s drive to cut costs after restructuring their operations around a big dollop of Tencent funding, which has elsewhere seen Ubisoft propose to lay off up to 200 people in Paris, and chop fixed costs by €200 million over the next two years.

As ever with layoff announcements, the accompanying statement consists of an anonymous spokesperson rotating a dial back and forth between “robotic platitude” and “ghastly euphemism”, while looking back at the audience for approval. In this case, the dial is tilting towards “robotic platitude”.

“This decision was not taken lightly and does not in any way reflect the talent, dedication, or contributions of the individuals affected,” an Ubi rep told MobileSyrup, as passed along by Very Gary Computing. “Our priority now is to support them through this transition with comprehensive severance packages and robust career placement assistance.”

MobileSyrup have also gotten hold of an internal email in which some company bigwig allegedly claims that Toronto will remain “a key contributor to several codev mandates and service teams,” in addition to developing Splinter Cell’s remake. The latter was announced back in 2021 as a Snowdrop engine project. We’ve heard very little about it since. Splinter Cell is not one of the three flagship series identified by Ubi management as being potential “billionaire brands”. As such, Splinter Cell projects are theoretically at more risk of being terminated, though Ubisoft have yet to cancel infamous vapourware game Beyond Good and Evil 2, so who knows.

Begun in January, Ubisoft’s Tencent-abetted restructuring has seen them cancel six games, delay seven others, and close a couple of studios, alongside company-wide layoffs. They’ve also announced a new RTO policy, with staff getting a yearly allowance of home days instead of proper hybrid working. All of which has provoked hundreds of Ubisoft workers to go on strike.