According to Insider-Gaming (Tom Henderson), after the annual loss of over a billion euros Ubisoft is shutting down several offices around the world and shrinking down many teams, including the one that works on Rainbow Six Siege... in total, about 380 people lost their jobs during these "structural changes".

Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake is still set to be released in time and the company has a lot of hopes for it. The preorders are record-breaking.

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#Layoffs@GameDEV

XBOX was hit by the new internal announcement, stating that the profit margin of the gaming department is now at 3% (the healthy one is at least 20%). To counter that, Asha is planning the major reboot and restructuring.

About 1000 people will be fired this summer from the whole XBOX structure, according to the reports.

UPD: news outlets misinformed me — it's "down BY 3% Y2Y", not down to 3%.

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#XBOX@GameDEV

Remember I recommended you We Happy Few during the whole previous week, since it was notoriously well written?

Well, the studio behind it is reportedly being closed. No official confirmation yet but South of Midnight was equally creative but didn't get enough sales. And it's not enough to make three games in 15 years.

The company is still making their next game, but Kotaku and Insider-Gaming reported that employees believe that closure "is just a matter of time".

Two months ago they were posting job openings, then last week several employees set green badges on LN.

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#XBOX@GameDEV
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The flagship Paris office of Don't Nod (Remember Me, Life is Strange, Vampyr, Banishers) is running out of funds. They will not have any money by November of 2026 and desperately looking for a publishing deal. Their biggest shareholder Tencent refused to cooperate further.

Semi-independent office in Montreal is a different entity sponsored by Netflix. Their partnership continues regardless.

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#DontNod@GameDEV

Well, one of the Sea of Thieves leads, who took a serious role to maintain the whole portfolio, is stepping down before major layoffs. I assume, he doesn't want to be associated with whatever happens next.

#XBOX@GameDEV

Arkane, Double Fine, and Ninja Theory were added to the list for closure in addition to Compulsion Games. They all apparently negotiate independence from XBOX.

They may at best be left without their IPs but with core teams on their own. Even as independent entities they will have to run through significant layoffs.

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#Microsoft@GameDEV
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The team behind Luna Abyss was laid off from Kwalee without a warning. Hollie Emery, the CEO of Kwalee Labs announced it on her LN.

The game has been released less than a month ago and got positive reception from players and media. It sold OK-ish since there was almost no marketing (and I have never heard of it before).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1933000/Luna_Abyss/
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Zenimax is also hit by layoffs beyond Arkane, the procedure will take some time, but unless an employee is working directly on Fallout or Elder Scrolls, they are in danger.

Imagine buying billions upon billions of assets to now slowly kill the whole thing. It's heartbreaking.

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Spellcaster Chronicles from Quantic Dream is now closed.

Instead of hiding in the shadows, Quantic Dream is preparing materials about the development of the game. Concept Arts are already available.

Paid founders pack granted users earlier access, but overall it was free to play. And by the decision of the developer and publisher, all in-game payments were refunded automatically + they enabled extended refund on Steam.

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The studio behind Memories in Orbit is shutting down. Douze Dixièmes got independent from Focus Entertainment and then failed to gather any funding.

MiO was considered a commercial failure by Focus which leaves me speechless — what were their expectations then?

#LayOffs@GameDEV