Ubisoft stock plunges nearly 40% as it announces studio reorganisation, cancels six games including a Prince of Persia remake, and forecasts a €1 billion loss.
PARIS: Shares in French video game giant Ubisoft plummeted more than 39% on Thursday, its sharpest intraday fall ever, following a major restructuring announcement.
The company revealed plans to reorganise its development studios around specific game genres and implement further cost cuts.
Six games in development, including a hotly anticipated remake of “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”, have been cancelled.
Seven other titles have been delayed as part of the strategic overhaul.
Ubisoft aims to find an additional €200 million in cost savings, having already cut €300 million over the past three years.
The publisher of “Assassin’s Creed” now forecasts an operating loss of €1 billion for its 2025-26 financial year.
“I’m very worried about the future of the group,” said Cedric, an employee at Ubisoft’s Paris studio who asked not to use his full name.
He understood the move towards financial sustainability but said it came “at the cost of a lot of layoffs and studio closures”.
Ubisoft has recently closed offices in Stockholm and Halifax and restructured operations in Abu Dhabi, Finland, and Sweden.
Its workforce has fallen to around 17,000 from over 20,000 in recent years.
Management’s plan to reduce work-from-home options in France has also caused unease among staff.
“Returning to five days a week (in the office) around family life and organising parenting is impossible to imagine nowadays,” Cedric added.
One union called for an immediate walkout by workers on Thursday morning.
Industry economist Laurent Michaud called the genre-focused studio plan “an excellent idea”, noting “Ubisoft is betting on its top asset: its skilled workers”.
He added that cancelling projects like “Prince of Persia” was not unprecedented for major publishers.
Lionel Melka, a partner at Swann Capital, said cancellations meant “flushing a lot of money down the toilet” and would damage the company’s reputation with fans.
He stated the harsh moves showed Ubisoft was “in survival mode”, fearing a worsening spiral.
The potential collapse of Ubisoft would be devastating for France’s wider video game ecosystem.
“France’s video games ecosystem owes a huge amount to Ubisoft,” Michaud said, adding it would be “very bad news if it couldn’t manage”.
