Ubisoft offers 100 German developers a voluntary exit

Ubisoft has opened negotiations with the works councils of its three German studios — in Düsseldorf, Berlin and Mainz — over a voluntary departure program. According to Game File, which first reported the plans, it will affect around 100 people. The company confirmed the fact of the negotiations but declined to confirm their scale.

Layoffs are not on the table yet: Ubisoft expects to reach the required number of departures through payouts — if enough people volunteer, forced contract terminations can be avoided. A Ubisoft representative called the voluntary program the "primary measure offered to support the planned organizational changes."

One and a half months' pay for every year worked

According to Game File's sources, a specific severance formula is on the table in the negotiations: monthly pay multiplied by 1.5 and by the number of years worked at the company. At two years of service that is three months' pay, at ten years fifteen. The terms are not final: the sum could be revised in either direction and supplemented with bonuses. Employees have not yet received an official offer — a company representative stated that the terms remain subject to negotiation with employee representatives and that there is no final agreement.

Works councils appeared at Ubisoft's German studios only last year. The outlet GamesWirtschaft notes that their presence markedly strengthens employees' bargaining position.

More than half the cuts will fall on Düsseldorf

The Düsseldorf studio, formerly Blue Byte, is the largest of the three. Game File estimates its headcount at more than 400 people and writes that it will account for more than half of the hundred positions, that is, over 50. GamesWirtschaft cites different figures: more than 300 people in Düsseldorf, 165 in Mainz and around 100 in Berlin, some 580 employees in the country in total. By either count, this concerns roughly one in six Ubisoft employees in Germany.

Düsseldorf took part in developing The Settlers series, supports Rainbow Six Siege and the Rayman Legends Retold remake, and also works on escape rooms under the Ubisoft brand. Berlin operates in the same support mode: Rainbow Six Siege, Rayman Legends Retold, and earlier Far Cry 6 and Skull and Bones. Both teams work mainly on other Ubisoft studios' projects.

Mainz is being cut just before a major expansion ships

Mainz is the only one of the three studios with its own franchise: it runs the Anno series. Anno 117: Pax Romana launched in November 2025 and, according to Ubisoft, is the fastest-selling game in the series. The largest expansion to date, Awakening of the Delta, arrives in November. The game's development was supported by federal subsidies of more than 6 million euros.

Downsizing a team that is about to release a big expansion shows that a specific project's commercial result does not protect a studio from a headcount review.

A voluntary exit does not cancel layoffs

Ubisoft already has a recent precedent for how such programs end. In autumn 2025 Sweden's Massive Entertainment ran a similar voluntary scheme, but not enough people were willing to leave on their own: in January 2026 the company laid off around 55 people at Massive and Ubisoft Stockholm. The German studios have been through cuts as well: in January 2025 the company announced 185 positions across several European offices, about 65 of them in Düsseldorf, and those were layoffs proper.

The German story is part of the same wave as other decisions. Ubisoft has proposed closing Finland's RedLynx, creator of the Trials series — that is around 52 jobs, with the decision depending on negotiations. In parallel, 70 positions are being cut at the Singapore studio, which released the Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag remake this summer.

Why Ubisoft keeps shrinking

The cuts have been going on for years and look systemic. The company's headcount has fallen from 20,729 people at the end of September 2022 to 16,590 at the end of March 2026. By Ubisoft's own figures, costs have been reduced by almost 325 million euros since 2022, with another 180 million to be trimmed by 2028. Game File links this to changes in the industry and a shortage of releases, let alone hits. In June the company announced the closure of its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios and cuts in Barcelona.

Against this backdrop the German case reads as part of the company's restructuring around "Creative Houses": key franchises have been spun out into a separate structure, Vantage Studios, with Tencent's participation, Anno and a number of other series are gathered in an adjacent track, and support studios work within a shared production network. The German teams are distributed precisely between these tracks, and the biggest losers are likely those working as contractors on other teams' projects.

If the cost-cutting target through 2028 stays as it is, the wave probably will not end with Germany, Finland and Singapore. For professionals the practical takeaway is simple: a spot at a major publisher's support studio is becoming less stable, and bargaining power is shifting toward teams with their own franchise and toward countries where the law requires cuts to be agreed with employee representatives. The German works councils, set up at Ubisoft's studios only last year, are now going through their first serious test — its outcome will determine whether the voluntary departure format becomes the standard way to reduce headcount at the company's European divisions.

Community reaction

There has been no big wave of solidarity from studios and developers so far: the discussion rests on reprints of the news and on replies under the German post about the cuts. The tone is mixed and more weary than outraged. Some people greet the news with schadenfreude and tie the layoffs to the quality of recent games and the company's ideological line. Others see this as the second round after the cuts in early 2025 and do not believe in the German studios' resilience. A separate sore point is the fate of the Mainz studio, where Anno is made: people are asking that it be left alone. The wording about a voluntary exit is being mocked as cover for ordinary layoffs. There is both anxiety for the employees themselves and a colder argument: in the age of neural networks, laid-off specialists can easily become competitors to their former employer. The economic commentary reduces the story to how expensive Germany is, not just to Ubisoft's problems.

"The so-called voluntary departure plan is the funniest and the saddest thing I've read here."

— @aesthetica_s (X)

"First sixty-five positions in early 2025, now another hundred. Anyone who talks about stability after that also believes in Santa Claus."

— @RetroCoderX (X)

"They've been making nothing but nonsense for ages. I got a survey about Skull and Bones: supposedly about what to improve in the game, but the questions revolved only around fighting hate and harassment, not around the game itself."

— @IchbinIchNeu (X)

What do you attribute the cuts at Ubisoft's German studios to: the bet on major franchises, the failure of recent releases, or a general decline in demand for mid-sized projects?