Ubisoft, a software company with a global workforce of 17,000 employees, has made the decision to shut down its studio in Halifax, resulting in 71 staff members losing their jobs. The closure is part of the company’s efforts to enhance efficiency and reduce costs through various operational improvements implemented over the past two years.
According to a company spokesperson, Antoine Leduc-Labelle, the decline in revenue of the video game Assassin’s Creed Rebellion, which the Halifax studio was working on, since its launch in 2018 contributed to the studio’s closure. Coinciding with the closure, employees at the studio formed the first union in North America for Ubisoft workers in late December.
T.J. Gillis, a senior server developer at the Halifax studio for five years, expressed dismay over the sudden closure, attributing the decision to industry challenges and the unfortunate trend of studio closures. The union representing the workers, CWA Canada, intends to seek clarification from Ubisoft regarding the reasons behind the closure, with the president, Carmel Smyth, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that the shutdown was not related to the formation of the union.
Gillis highlighted the impact of the closure on the local game development community, noting that with the shutdown of the Halifax studio, opportunities for game developers in the province have diminished, following the closure of Microsoft’s Alpha Dog studio in the region in 2024. The closure has left employees disheartened, as years of collaborative work on various projects come to an abrupt end.