Ubisoft subsidiary Red Storm Entertainment has just laid off over 100 developers and is ceasing game development, according to new reports.
Both VGC and GamesIndustry.biz reported on the layoffs at the North Carolina game studio on Thursday morning. There were 105 jobs cut as part of Ubisoft's latest round of layoffs, and Red Storm Entertainment will now be a support studio working on the Snowdrop game engine, IT services, and customer relations rather than active game development.
It's a sad end for a studio that played a major role in making Ubisoft what it is today. Red Storm Entertainment, co-founded by Tom Clancy himself, created the Rainbow Six series in 1998 and was acquired by Ubisoft in 2000. Over the next two decades, it would help build up the Ghost Recon series and The Division in addition to spearheading Ubisoft's VR development with Werewolves Within and Star Trek: Bridge Crew.
While Red Storm was a prolific Ubisoft studio, the 2020s haven't been nearly as kind to it. Two games it was working on, The Division Heartland and a Splinter Cell VR game, were canceled before release after years of development. It did launch Assassin's Creed Nexus VR in 2023, and while that game was well received, it underperformed Ubisoft's expectations.
Now, it doesn't seem like Red Storm will have the opportunity to lead development of a new game again. It will simply be supporting other Ubisoft studios with a much smaller team than before.
Source
Both VGC and GamesIndustry.biz reported on the layoffs at the North Carolina game studio on Thursday morning. There were 105 jobs cut as part of Ubisoft's latest round of layoffs, and Red Storm Entertainment will now be a support studio working on the Snowdrop game engine, IT services, and customer relations rather than active game development.
It's a sad end for a studio that played a major role in making Ubisoft what it is today. Red Storm Entertainment, co-founded by Tom Clancy himself, created the Rainbow Six series in 1998 and was acquired by Ubisoft in 2000. Over the next two decades, it would help build up the Ghost Recon series and The Division in addition to spearheading Ubisoft's VR development with Werewolves Within and Star Trek: Bridge Crew.
While Red Storm was a prolific Ubisoft studio, the 2020s haven't been nearly as kind to it. Two games it was working on, The Division Heartland and a Splinter Cell VR game, were canceled before release after years of development. It did launch Assassin's Creed Nexus VR in 2023, and while that game was well received, it underperformed Ubisoft's expectations.
Now, it doesn't seem like Red Storm will have the opportunity to lead development of a new game again. It will simply be supporting other Ubisoft studios with a much smaller team than before.
Source