Ubisoft cuts 45 jobs at US studios behind XDefiant and Rocksmith

Ubisoft has confirmed plans to lay off 45 employees from two of its US studios.

As reported by Bloomberg, the cuts are spread across Ubisoft San Francisco and Cary, North Carolina-based Red Storm Entertainment.

Ubisoft San Francisco is the studio behind Rocksmith, South Park: The Fractured but Whole and XDefiant, while Red Storm primarily develops games in the Tom Clancy’s franchise.

A Ubisoft spokesperson said the “difficult yet necessary decision was made to align these studios’ organizations with their future business and development objectives”.

Affected employees will receive severance and career assistance, they added.

Ubisoft announced in May that it had cancelled The Division Heartland, which had been in development at Red Storm.

Explaining the decision in an earnings call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said Heartland didn’t align with the company’s plans to sharpen its strategic focus on two verticals: open world adventures and native games-as-a-service titles.

“In line with the increased selectivity of our investment, we have decided to stop development on The Division Heartland and are redeploying our resources to bigger opportunities like XDefiant and Rainbow Six Siege,” added chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet.

Announced in May 2021, Heartland was planned as a free-to-play multiplayer survival-action shooter for PC and consoles.