Ubisoft is apparently ceasing active video game development at its long-established Red Storm Entertainment studio, laying off 105 employees as a result. The studio, largely responsible for the origins of the Tom Clancy series, is thus losing its creative independence.
Internal information obtained by VGC reportedly confirms that all game development positions at Red Storm have been eliminated. The North Carolina-based studio will no longer function as a lead developer, but will instead operate solely as a support unit for global IT infrastructure and the Snowdrop engine.
This move marks the end of an era for the studio co-founded by Tom Clancy in 1996, which established the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon brands.
The failure of the VR and free-to-play approach
After Red Storm was acquired by Ubisoft in 2000, the focus shifted increasingly over the last decade towards VR projects such as "Star Trek: Bridge Crew" and "Assassin's Creed Nexus VR". A decisive factor in the current restructuring is likely the cancellation of "The Division Heartland" in 2024.
The free-to-play project was canceled after several public testing phases. Responsibility for the major Tom Clancy franchises has been with other Ubisoft studios in Montreal, Paris, Toronto, and Massive Entertainment for some time now.
Cost-cutting measures as part of the group restructuring
The layoffs at Red Storm are part of a far-reaching cost-cutting program by Ubisoft. The company plans to reduce fixed costs by a further 200 million euros over the next two years. This “Major Reset“This has already led to the cancellation of six games, the postponement of seven other titles, and the closure of two studios.
In addition to the cuts in the US, locations in Toronto and the headquarters in Paris are also affected by massive job reductions, with up to 18 percent of the workforce in France potentially being eliminated. The goal is to restructure the creative teams into autonomous "Creative Houses".
Red Storm Entertainment is disappearing from the market as a creative force and will remain solely as an infrastructure division within the Ubisoft group. For gamers, this means that no more standalone titles should be expected from this studio. Its technological expertise will henceforth be exclusively dedicated to maintaining the Snowdrop engine, which is used for games such as "The Division" and "Star Wars Outlaws."
Well, in the VR section for regular users they only had Assassin's Creed, which is really damn good, and the Star Trek game... okay, Eagle Flight... which I don't really consider a proper game. It's a shame they didn't have the staying power again. As already mentioned, the Assassin's Creed VR version is really quite good and fun to play. Very atmospheric and the movement etc. is simply well done.
Well… Tom Clancy founded the studio, Ubisoft later acquired it, some of the biggest Ubisoft brands that made the company great came from this studio, and now, after constantly giving them the wrong assignments and no longer allowing them to work on their own brands, they are simply being kicked out or the studio is being devalued.
Nothing in this industry, and especially not Ubisoft, is surprising anymore. It's truly the absolute worst…