Ubisoft is reportedly shutting down offices across Europe, with the company telling NME it is working on a “strategic reorganisation” of its European subsidiaries.
Today (March 3) a Resetera user claimed to have received an email from Ubisoft announcing the closure of an office in Benelux.
“As we all know, the market is constantly evolving and as an organization, we need to keep up with it,” reads the supposed email. “At this time, Ubisoft is facing several challenges due to external factors, such as the decline in sales volume of physical games in favor of digital sales, the centralization of marketing by digitizing all our communication channels, the shift from major retail releases to F2P, mobile and seasonal games and less major physical shows.”
“To meet the challenges of the future, Ubisoft’s management has decided to close a number of subsidiaries in Europe,” it continues. “Unfortunately, the Ubisoft Benelux entity is subject to the intended closure with most employees departing as of April 1st, 2023.”
The quoted email says that “Ubisoft BV will fully outsource the current distribution of physical games in the Benelux to a distributor to be announced at a later stage.”
Speaking to NME, a spokesperson for Ubisoft said: “Ubisoft’s publishing organisation is working on a strategic reorganization of its European business subsidiaries. This process is ongoing and we don’t have any more detail to share at this stage.”
However, the statement did not address which entities will be closing or confirm how many employees will be affected.
The closure comes as Ubisoft’s Montpellier studio reportedly faces a labour investigation due to high rates of burnout and sick leave.
Elsewhere in the industry, this week, EA fired over 200 Apex Legends testers through Zoom.
Speaking to NME, workers caught in the lay-offs claimed they were fired “effective immediately” during a short-notice Zoom meeting, yet a follow-up letter detailing the lay-offs was dated September 2022.
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