Ubisoft has shut down its Halifax Studio, simply weeks after 61 of its 71 staff voted to unionize.
The writer shared this information in an announcement to IGN right now, confirming that 71 positions had been impacted and claiming this transfer was a part of its wider two-year effort company-wide to “streamline operations, enhance effectivity, and cut back prices.” “We’re dedicated to supporting all impacted staff members throughout this transition with sources, together with complete severance packages and extra profession help,” the corporate added.
This comes three weeks after 61 of Ubisoft Halifax’s staff voted to unionize with the Sport & Media Employees Guild of Canada, which is itself a part of CWA (Communications Employees of America) in Canada. The union was formally licensed six months after staff introduced their intentions to unionize, and after 74% of eligible staff consisting of producers, programmers, designers, artists, researchers, and testing voted in favor. It marked the primary Ubisoft union in North America.
Ubisoft has claimed that the closure of Ubisoft Halifax is unrelated to the union, and is as a substitute part of its bigger restructuring and cost-saving efforts, in addition to declining revenues from Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion, which can even be winding down operations as a part of this resolution. The writer has been present process vital cuts, shedding staff in batches over the previous few years, shutting down studios, and canceling a number of initiatives amid a collection of disappointing releases and falling revenues. Final yr, Ubisoft turned outdoors the corporate for help, creating a brand new enterprise entity to handle Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six with a 25% stake from Tencent.
IGN reached out to Ubisoft Employees of Canada: Halifax and CWA for remark, and obtained the next: “We’re devastated that that is occurring, particularly so quickly after we unionized. We’re trying into all avenues to battle for the rights of our members.”
Ubisoft Halifax started as a department of Longtail Studios, which was based in New York Metropolis in 2003 by Ubisoft co-founder Gérard Guillemot, with branches in Quebec and Halifax being added in later years. It was best-known for its work on the Rocksmith collection, in addition to numerous early cellular and Nintendo DS video games. In 2015, Ubisoft acquired Longtail and renamed it Ubisoft Halifax, placing it to work on cellular video games comparable to Assassin’s Creed Rebellion and Rainbow Six Cellular.
Two years in the past, we advised the story of a 2008-2009 unionization drive that befell on the Quebec Longtail studio that was finally unsuccessful resulting from what our sources claimed had been pretty open union-busting efforts by its administration, together with mass layoffs attributed to financial circumstances. Each Longtail Halifax and Quebec had been finally folded into Ubisoft in subsequent years.
Picture Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Photos/LightRocket through Getty Photos.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Obtained a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.