Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Staff Laid Off: “We Will Never See the Fruits of Our Labour, and the Reward for Our Hard Work Will Be the Loss of Our Jobs.”

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By Peter Brosdahl

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Image: Ubisoft

Ubisoft Barcelona, one of the studios behind Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, is going on strike following reports that nearly a third of its staff were just laid off. There’s an old expression to the effect of take the money and run and it looks like, at least on the surface, that’s exactly what the publisher is doing. Ubisoft has been restructuring, a polite corp-speak way of stating business-wide layoffs for some time, but this particular round is perhaps more painful for the Barcelona branch given the praise recently given for the game’s successful, record-breaking launch. A flyer has been posted online detailing the layoffs and three-day strike which begins today.

Image: Ubisoft Barcelona/Reddit

The team at Barcelona is not the first to face the gallows, as Ubisoft Winnipeg and Belgrade have already been cut, and a recent report claims that teams in the U.S. are next. The Guillemot family has been struggling to keep the publisher afloat, and rumors state that AI is hoped to be a digital savior, but meanwhile, getting rid of its human components seems the top priority. The irony is not hidden that while leadership focused on multiple flops and failed ideas, a studio behind one of its biggest releases is having to help pay the price. Quality assurance lead Isabel Codina García posted on social media that the team had pitched new Assassin’s Creed projects but instead were given their walking papers.

“Vantage Studios has stated there will not be further mandates for the Barcelona studio, despite the team proposing new AC projects. 51 people, myself included, will be affected by the end of July.

After 7 years at Ubisoft Barcelona, this is not how I imagined it would end. But I am genuinely grateful for the people I have met and everything I have learned along the way.”

-Codina García, Quality assurance lead

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Grimlakin
Grimlakin

I don't think its right. But.. isn't that par for the course in game development? Personally Im surprised it wasnt more like 60%.

Peter Brosdahl
As a child of the 70’s I was part of the many who became enthralled by the video arcade invasion of the 1980’s. Saving money from various odd jobs I purchased my first computer from a friend of my dad, a used Atari 400, around 1982. Eventually it would end up being a lifelong passion of upgrading and modifying equipment that, of course, led into a career in IT support.

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