Ubisoft Shuts Down Two More Studios as 2026 Restructuring Pushes Total Job Losses Past 680

Ubisoft has closed its Belgrade and Winnipeg studios as part of a new wave of cost-cutting, marking the sixth round of layoffs the company has executed in 2026 alone. Up to 380 positions are affected across both closures and related cuts at the Barcelona office. The move follows a record operating loss of €1.3 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2026.

What Was Announced

Ubisoft confirmed the closure of Ubisoft Belgrade and Ubisoft Winnipeg on June 10, 2026. Barcelona’s office survives but loses a significant share of its staff and narrows its focus entirely to the Rainbow Six franchise. Altogether, the latest round affects up to 380 jobs across all three locations.

Winnipeg employed approximately 65 people at the time of closure. Belgrade carried a larger headcount, with over 100 employees losing their positions. Barcelona loses around 51 staff members in the same restructuring move.

Ubisoft had not publicly announced the closures ahead of reporting. According to Game Developer, the company imposed a layoff embargo before the news broke, with Insider Gaming and French outlet Les Echos independently reporting the closures before any official statement arrived.

Ubisoft Belgrade: A Support Studio Since 2009

Ubisoft Belgrade opened in 2009 and grew into one of Ubisoft’s key Eastern European support studios. Over more than fifteen years, the team contributed to Steep, The Crew 2, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Riders Republic, Rainbow Six Siege, Skull and Bones, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Belgrade was never a lead developer on a major title, but it served as a consistent co-development resource across a wide range of Ubisoft’s biggest franchises.

The closure ends Ubisoft’s presence in Serbia entirely. All employees have been let go with no transfer or reassignment confirmed for any part of the team.

Ubisoft Winnipeg: Opened in 2019, Gone in Seven Years

Ubisoft Winnipeg opened in January 2019 with government support and promises of significant growth. In 2022, Ubisoft publicly targeted a 300-person headcount in Winnipeg by 2030. Instead, the studio closed on June 10, 2026, with approximately 65 people impacted.

The closure follows the January 2026 shutdown of Ubisoft Halifax, which ended with 71 redundancies. Both Canadian closures form part of the same broader retreat from satellite studio infrastructure that Ubisoft began at the start of the year.

Six Rounds of Layoffs in 2026, and It Is Only June

The Belgrade and Winnipeg closures are not isolated events. They are the latest entries in a documented pattern of cuts that has accelerated sharply in 2026. The breakdown of confirmed rounds this year runs as follows:

• January 2026: Stockholm closed, Halifax closed, 55 cut at Massive Entertainment, 29 in Abu Dhabi, 60 at RedLynx
• February 2026: 40 cut at Ubisoft Toronto
• March 2026: Red Storm Entertainment loses 105 jobs; game development formally ends at the studio
• June 2026: Winnipeg closed (65 jobs), Belgrade closed (100+ jobs), Barcelona loses 51 and narrows to Rainbow Six only

That puts the confirmed total at roughly 680 jobs eliminated at Ubisoft in 2026 before the middle of the year. For context, Ubisoft employed over 20,000 staff in 2023. Before the June closures, that figure had already fallen to 16,590.

Red Storm: The Game Development Chapter Closed

The March 2026 Red Storm round deserves separate attention because of its symbolic weight. Red Storm Entertainment was founded by Tom Clancy himself in 1996. The studio created the original Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games that built two of Ubisoft’s most commercially durable franchises.

After the March cuts, Red Storm no longer develops games. The remaining team now provides IT support and Snowdrop engine services to other Ubisoft studios. The studio that invented tactical military shooters as a mainstream genre now exists entirely as internal infrastructure.

The Financial Context

Ubisoft reported a record operating loss of €1.3 billion for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026. This followed a €650 million restructuring write-down and a string of commercial disappointments. Six games were cancelled in January 2026, including the long-delayed Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake.

The company’s AAA pipeline for the remainder of 2026 is effectively limited to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, a remaster of the 2013 original launching on July 9. Active content support for Assassin’s Creed Shadows ended with its final update on June 15, 2026, which also served as a narrative bridge into Black Flag Resynced.

Ubisoft management has stated the company does not expect to return to positive cash flow until fiscal year 2027/28. Industry analysts projected at the start of 2026 that as many as 2,000 further redundancies could follow before that recovery date arrives. With approximately 680 positions already confirmed this year, that projection remains well within reach.

What Remains of Ubisoft’s Studio Network

The studios that have closed or been stripped of game development since early 2026 span three continents. Stockholm, Halifax, Winnipeg, and Belgrade are shut. Red Storm no longer ships games. Barcelona is narrowed to a single franchise. Massive Entertainment survived January’s cuts but lost over 50 developers.

The studios still actively developing games include Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Quebec, Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Bordeaux, and a reduced Ubisoft Toronto. However, the scope of what those remaining studios are building remains largely unannounced, and the cancellation of six titles in January means the public pipeline is thinner than at any point in the company’s recent history.

Bottom Line

Ubisoft is not in a slow decline. The pace of cuts in 2026 points to a company in active structural retreat, shedding infrastructure faster than it is replacing it with anything visible. Belgrade and Winnipeg are the latest proof of that. Red Storm was the most historically significant loss. The question is not whether more cuts are coming. Management has already said they are. The question is which studios are left when the cash flow turns positive in 2028, and whether any meaningful game development capacity survives to make use of it.