Ubisoft Toronto lays off 33 employees 'to ensure it can deliver on its ambitious roadmap'

PC Gamer: "The plague of layoffs that's gripped the videogame industry since the start of 2023 continued today as Ubisoft confirmed that 33 employees at its Toronto studio have been let go."

[ROCKY28]

UBI is SOFT !

[isarai]

YOU BE FLACID!!!

[TOTSUKO]

CEO: “I layed off 33 people so I can get a higher paying bonus”

[Demetrius]

Exactly tho smh

[Lightning77]

It's always the studio and games that ppl like the most. I heard Plagues Tale 2 was really good.

[Tacoboto]

Huh? A Plague's Tale is made by Asobo, the Flight Simulator studio... It's not an Ubisoft game.

[Lightning77]

Whoa wrong article wow wrong info from me.

[jznrpg]

That makes sense. We have a lot of work to do so let’s get rid of people

[Seraphim]

Overworked and underpaid is the Corporate way. Chin up bucko! Work harder, we know you can do it.

[DarXyde]

Sounds grossly contradictory, but my guess is the plan is to scare everyone else into being more productive.

[Noskypeno]

It's why I see so many hiring signs but then they say they're just taking applications. They want to get the workers in a mindset that they are so easily replaceable. I see a billboard next to a business that never takes down the hiring sign since it was created many years ago. If they really are still constantly hiring that means a high turnover rate, which means it probably sucks to work there.

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Most companies will happily overwork, burnout, then replace employees, I've seen this happen in a few companies and even work in a place that does this. The turnover is so high, and it looks like madness to the long term staff (especially when you're constantly training newbies and failing to reach goals).

[Noskypeno]

Final fantasy, that does sound very contradictive of what a lot of CEOs tell us. I've seen plenty of articles about how expensive it is to train new employees, but they might be lying just to motivate employees to stay at a job a little longer than they want even if it doesn't have good working conditions. But I seriously doubt it costs 10 grand to train the average employee. They just want us to feel guilty if we don't want to stay at a bad job until we retire.

[PRIMORDUS]

Ubishit at it again. All these gaming companies are just greedy fucks who do not give a shit about their employees. There is one that everyone should follow, rest in peace Satoru Iwata. "Nintendo CEO once halved his salary to prevent layoffs, and it worked—why that’s so uncommon today" https://www.cnbc.com/2024/0... It's uncommon because they are all greedy SOBs, which I have no respect for.

[GhostScholar]

So you’re laying off people to get games out faster? 🤷‍♂️

[PRIMORDUS]

That is CEO logic these days.

[RedDevils]

No, more like money in the pocket faster.

[Good-Smurf]

Typical execs' excuse, them being such a big publisher they would have to lay off far more than 33 people to ensure they can deliver their ambitious roadmap if we're talking about more streamlining their workflow and cut the excess fat.
This won't help them one bit on their many rumored AC remakes and new AC games.
They're going to make us vomit from too much AC open world bloat and sameness.

[Zeke68]

Those 33 will be replaced by AI that is copying earlier Ubigames (maps, quests, skills) to churn out their games faster and faster. That way they can kick more people and the viscious cycle is going on and on.
I think that will happen with too many companies in the near future to be honest.

[Hofstaderman]

Well I'm laying off your future titles Ubisoft.

[Chocoburger]

"Ambitious roadmap" means live service junk with egregious micro-trash-actions, battle passes, unfinished sloppy games rushed out before Black Friday at all costs, then offer a fake ChatGPT written apology and promise to do better next time, only for the cycle to repeat.

[TRYNDAREUS]

It’s Ubisofts way of saying gamers are not buying our DEI infested games, so we are going to make up for that by sacking people.

[RiseNShine]

"We fire tons of people to make better games!" - Ubi logic.
Also: "you're fired, have a nice summer!", so thoughtful from them.

[Notellin]

"to ensure it can deliver on its ambitious roadmap,"

The only way we can deliver on this really low bar we've set we need to provide less resources and manpower. We'd hate to do the right thing here when bonus season is right around the corner.

[Demetrius]

What the lil ceo mf really mean is they laid off those folks so the higher ups can have a smoother experience in getting their bonuses