Ubisoft revealed to staff today that it plans to close its Halifax studio, as part of its restructuring efforts. This studio closure could result in layoffs of 71 staff members, though it says it will support all team members in with severance packages. The Halifax studio’s biggest project to date was the mobile game Assassin’s Creed Rebellion.
Last month, Ubisoft Halifax staff announced they had unionized under CWA Canada as the Game & Media Workers Guild of Canada. The 60-person unit said they made the decision to do so because of “industry-wide uncertainty, studio closures, layoffs, and increasing instability” in their mission statement. Ubisoft said, in a statement spotted by VGC, that it had made the decision to close the studio “well before” this happened.
Ubisoft has undertaken several cost-cutting measures in the last year-or-so, having canceled titles like XDefiant, shuttered four studios in 2025 including its Leamington location, and revamped its studio structure. As part of the latter, it reorganized all of its most successful franchises under Vantage Studios, which is owned in part by Tencent.
CWA Canada said in a statement to Game Developer that the news was “devastating” and the timing “raises many questions for which we do not yet have answers.” President Carmel Smyth added, “We will pursue every legal recourse to ensure that the rights of these workers are respected and not infringed in any way.”