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Ubisoft is in the shitter and they, for some reason, have over 17,000 employees. A strike over layoffs will most likley result in that entire office being closed. Ubisoft simply doesn't have the sales to back up their overinflated head count.
Their stock is literally a penny stock right now. Down 95% in the last 5 years....
Their stock price is 4.50 a share, and they have 780 million cash on hand. It’s still a huge drop from their high of course, but they have enough money they can pay their employees, you know, the ones who generate the value. Screw shareholders, they should be obligated to their employees.
They appear to have multiple stock types (this is common for large companies). The interesting part there is not the dollar value of each, but the 95% loss of value their stocks have have experienced over the last 5 years. The company is in the shitter and drastic changes are needed to keep it out of bankruptcy.
I don’t disagree on them having hard times.
I disagree that their only course of action is to layoff entire studios that actually generate their revenue.
I agree the best course of action was to not rehash the same stale games over and over for the last decade. Unfortunately, they kept that cycle going until there was nothing left in the tank. They let this massive problem fester until there is no longer any choice except drastic action.
Sure, they need a drastic redirect on what games they’re making and their shitty launcher. They need to return to making games people want to buy, instead of shoveling crap.
This requires fairly compensated labor.
If the 17000 employee statistic is accurate, $780M won't even last 6 months. That's just shy of $46k per employee, and according to Glassdoor, the average salary is considerably more than that.
Yes and no. Cash on hand is just what they have in the bank. Ubisoft isn’t cash flow negative, they have revenue of 2.5 billion USD per year. They lost 160 million dollars in 2025 but made 270 million in 2024. So at their 2025 rate, they can afford to pay all their employees they had in 2025, at their 2025 rates, for nearly 5 years. If they actually have good leadership and release good games that people buy, they’ll make money like in 2024 and be more than fine.
Exactly. Every employee costs the company 1.5x-2x their salary (benefits, taxes, etc, etc). So, you are talking just a few months of personal costs covered (not to mention piles and piles of other, non-personnel, costs). $780M in the bank at is a terrifyingly small amount of money to work with.
Oh wow 😲, you mean statements like:
"You need a little friction to create games"
“Microtransactions make the player experience more fun”
“Nothing is eternal” about support for older games
And wonderful decisions like:
always-online DRM
Removal of Access to Purchased Games
microtransactions in full-priced single-player games
Making the same game 500 times
Partnerships with Tencent.
Might have been bad ideas that lead to a lack of consumer trust and we have absolutely no reason to be forced into buying from a game company we don't like since literally anyone can download a game engine and start making games for free? Are you saying Yves Guillemot has been wrong this entire time? That's impossible next you'll be telling me EA or Bethesda is just as doomed and indie games will be just fine so gamers will be all the better for it.
"get used to not owning your games."
Well you need to get used to not having money
good time to buy? 👀
Fuck Ubisoft and all of its higher ups and boardmembers. They're getting what they deserve.
Now, who isn't getting what they deserve are all of the hardworking people that actually do the work for the company. The ones getting shitcanned.
I hate to say it, but like the other commenter, these aren't layoffs because they want line go up, they're layoffs because they literally don't have the money to pay for that many people. Ubisoft is rightfully circling the drain, it's unavoidable that those people's jobs will be lost.
If they need to do layoffs, start at the top
Now why would they go and do something perfectly sensible like that?! They don't get filthy rich by doing logical things.
Worth mentioning apparently the CEO did reduce his salary, but like, I’m not convinced? Just cause you dropped the bag doesn’t mean you didn’t rob the bank
(But also just being a bitch about the rich is cathartic)
I mean, if he's still living a life his employees can only dream of, he's still actually being a pile of shit. It's all pandering until they need to move out of their mansions.
I think an important fact to keep in mind is that not all Ubisoft offices are unionized, and from what I have seen they are targeting the unionized offices first.
So strike now, sue for union busting later.
Sell their assets, someone else could do a good AC. Youdont get to be shit and hold all the cards, they dont deserve to keep everything they built at the cost of the livelihoods of their staff.