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Ubisoft Halifax, the Nova Scotia-based mobile team in Ubisoft’s stable of studios, announced that it was unionizing back in December. Ubisoft swears up and down that what came next was decided before 61 of its 71 employees joined the Game & Media Workers Guild of Canada, and if that’s actually the case, Ubisoft sure stepped on a massive rake by shutting down the studio just weeks after organizing members made the union official.
In a statement to Gamesindustry.biz, Ubisoft said the call came not from a cruel union-busting effort, but as part of years-long cost-cutting initiative on the Assassin’s Creed company’s part.
“Over the past 24 months, Ubisoft has undertaken company-wide actions to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce costs,” the statement reads. “As part of this, Ubisoft has made the difficult decision to close its Halifax studio. 71 positions will be affected. We are committed to supporting all impacted team members during this transition with resources, including comprehensive severance packages and additional career assistance.”
Even if this is the case, the optics are bad. Ubisoft has been undergoing a lot of reorganization in the past few years, with layoffs at subsidiaries like Star Wars Outlaws developer Massive and top level personnel leaving the company as it continues to drastically reduce its workforce after Tencent bailed it out to the tune of $1.25 billion. So yeah, it might not be union busting, but the whole thing still deserves your “boos” and tomatoes.
Ubisoft Halifax had developed two free-to-play games based on some of Ubisoft’s biggest properties: Rainbow Six Mobile and Assassin’s Creed Rebellion. It’s unclear how this will affect Rainbow Six Mobile, which was set for a global release on February 23.
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