According to Wccftech, Ubisoft has launched a “voluntary” layoff program at its Paris headquarters, aiming to cut as many as 200 jobs. This move is part of the “major reset” the company announced last week, which included a corporate restructuring into five ‘Creative Houses,’ project cancellations, and a goal to slash €200 million in costs. The announcement comes after a strike at Ubisoft Paris on Thursday, January 22, 2026, and a report detailing widespread “anger and despair” among staff. The company’s share price has also hit its lowest point since 2011, with CEO Yves Guillemot presiding over a staggering 95% loss in total company value over the last eight years, from $10 billion to around $500 million. The voluntary program, known as a Rupture Conventionnelle Collective (RCC), only applies to Ubisoft International employees with French contracts and requires union agreement and government validation to proceed.
“Voluntary” is a loaded word
Here’s the thing about “voluntary” redundancy programs: they’re rarely as voluntary as they sound. Management presents a target, and then the pressure mounts. Teams get dissolved, projects get “realigned,” and suddenly, staying feels like a career dead-end. So while no one is being forcibly marched out the door today, the environment is being engineered to encourage a specific number of people to leave. It’s a way for a company to achieve deep cuts while, on paper, avoiding the harsher optics and potential legal complications of straight-up firings. The requirement for union sign-off and French government validation is a key detail—it means this process won’t be quick or quiet, and it gives employees a formal channel to push back.
The real cost of a “reset”
Ubisoft‘s “major reset” is starting to look less like a strategic pivot and more like a frantic salvage operation. You don’t lose 95% of your market cap because of a few bad game launches. That’s a systemic failure of leadership and vision over nearly a decade. Now, the proposed medicine—mass layoffs, a return-to-office mandate, and project cancellations—is directly attacking the very people who are supposed to build the company back: the developers. The union statement calling out Yves Guillemot hits the nail on the head: “Perhaps we need to remind him that it is his employees who make the games.” You can restructure your org chart all you want, but if you destroy morale and institutional knowledge in the process, what’s left to rebuild with?
A pattern, not an anomaly
Look, this isn’t just a Ubisoft problem. The entire games industry is in a brutal correction after the pandemic boom. But Ubisoft’s case feels particularly acute because of its sheer scale and the length of its decline. The simultaneous push for cost-cutting and a forced return-to-office is a classic, tone-deaf move that treats employees like line items rather than creative partners. It sparked an immediate strike, and it’s hard to see how it doesn’t lead to more. When your stock is at a 13-year low, can you really afford a full-blown labor war at your flagship studio? I doubt it. This feels like the beginning of a very ugly chapter, not the end of the bad news. The real question is whether the board and the Guillemot family still have the confidence to see this painful transition through, or if more drastic leadership changes are on the horizon.
