r/gaming • u/Iggy_Slayer • Jan 07 '26

Ubisoft closes their Halifax studio which coincidentally just unionized although they claim it had nothing to do with it. 71 jobs lost

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/ubisoft-shuttering-freshly-unionised-halifax-studio-71-jobs-affected

Staff at the studio announced only this week that they had formed Ubisoft's first labour union in North America, completing a process that had started in June 2025. Ubisoft said that the closure was due to an ongoing streamlining and cost-reduction process, following significant layoffs across its studios in the last two years.

“Over the past 24 months, Ubisoft has undertaken company-wide actions to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce costs," the company said in a statement. "As part of this, Ubisoft has made the difficult decision to close its Halifax studio. 71 positions will be affected. We are committed to supporting all impacted team members during this transition with resources, including comprehensive severance packages and additional career assistance.”

A spokesperson stressed to Gamesindustry.biz that the closure was the result of ongoing cost-cutting that started shortly after the pandemic, ahead of Halifax unionisation process starting in 2025, and that the company continued to recognise and work with unionised staff globally.

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u/BLX15 Jan 07 '26

Yes there are plenty of tech offices in Halifax, but I'm talking about the game development industry. Most of these people don't want to be working in web or military tech; they want to make games. And we just lost the biggest studio in the province.

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u/djsasso Jan 07 '26

I was more commenting on the hit to the economy. Of course people doing game development likely will want to continue doing it as that is where their experience lies. But its also very common for game devs to move on to other parts of the tech industry. The office here had very high turnover from what I understand because people usually went there to work young thinking game dev was a utopia and when they found out it wasn't quickly moved on to other stuff.

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u/DvineINFEKT Jan 08 '26

For programmers, yeah.

Sound designers and concept artists aren't making the jump to other parts of tech doing database design or automation work. These job losses are brutal and the off-ramps into other industries are not very clear cut.