Another from bad to worse scenario is unraveling as Ubisoft shares plummeted by nearly 40% following its latest attempt to become fiscally sustainable. The challenge of getting Ubisoft above water seems to be a never-ending slate of one bad decision followed by another, and from its stockholders to its employees, few appear to have confidence in co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot.
From layoffs to strikes and no end in sight of cancelled projects, one might wonder what’s left at Ubisoft. Its stocks have sunk by roughly 40% in a matter of days and are down by 95% since 2021 (via OC3D), and it is said to be expecting a $1.17 billion operating loss in FY26. Staff morale continues to sink amid ongoing restructuring, with claims of excessive pay increases for high-level positions, while many lower-level staff continue to go without raises. The following per GameIndustry.biz.
“”The company is continuing its cost reduction and lay off plan. Our teams are already working under pressure, often understaffed. After several years without pay rises (or very small increases), we understand that once again, employees will not receive a raise this year, At the same time, the reorganisation is creating a number of high-level positions with excessive salaries.”
Marc Rutschlé, Solidaires Informatique union representative at Ubisoft Paris
Given the amount of culling and reorganization happening, Ubisoft may be prepping itself to be sold. Rumors regarding this possibility have persisted in recent months. Meanwhile, just last week, six more games were cancelled, including the Prince of Persia remake, which led to its latest stock market crash, leaving the publisher without any major releases set for this year.
“Ubisoft has discontinued 6 games that do not meet the new enhanced quality as well as more selective portfolio prioritization criteria at Group level. These include Prince of Persia The Sands of Time remake as well as 4 unannounced titles, including 3 new IP’s, and a mobile title.
In parallel, the Group will allocate additional development time to 7 games in order to ensure enhanced quality benchmarks are fully met and maximise long-term value creation. This includes the unannounced title initially planned for FY26, that has been delayed to FY27.”
– Ubisoft
So what’s left? Word has it that Watch Dogs might survive the current carnage, but there’s some confusion and disagreement regarding it. Beyond Good and Evil 2 may have also survived, as well as the Assassin’s Creed IV remake. At this point, it’s anybody’s guess, and if Ubisoft does get sold, it’s all but a guarantee the new owner(s) would likely utilize the common strategy of yet more layoffs to offset debts, which could further jeopardize the aforementioned projects.
It would be unrealistic to liken the current situation to dark clouds on the horizon, as things have been going from bad to worse for nearly a decade now, and while there have been occasional rays of sunlight, they are few and infrequent (we have many stories reporting on the ups and downs of the company, which can be found here).