Sawt Falasteen - Stricken games giant Ubisoft seeks rare French job cuts

Managers told AFP they would seek voluntary departure agreements covering that number of employees, a sizeable chunk of the 1,100 in Paris and around five percent of the group's French workforce.

Although Ubisoft has slashed around 3,000 jobs in recent years, shrinking headcount to 17,000 worldwide, almost none of the cuts had fallen in its home country.

"There will be no final decision until a collective agreement has been reached with worker representatives and approved by the French authorities," Ubisoft said.

The planned job cuts announcement follows Ubisoft's commitment to reorganise many of its dozens of development studios around the world into "creative houses" focused around different game genres.

On top of the restructuring and a new 200-million-euro ($240 million) cost-cutting drive, Ubisoft also cancelled six games in development and said seven more upcoming titles would be delayed.

Fans were particularly vocal online about the scrapping of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time", a remake of a historic Ubisoft hit.

The moves left the company facing an operating loss of around one billion euros in its 2025-26 financial year, bosses said.

Financial woes and multiple disappointing game releases have already prompted Ubisoft to make 300 million euros in annual savings and close studios, including in San Franciso, Stockholm, Osaka, Halifax in Canada and Leamington in the UK.

Investors sent Ubisoft's stock plunging on Thursday, the day after the strategy was revealed, in its worst intraday performance ever.

At around 4.50 euros Monday, the shares are down around 30 percent so far in 2026 and over 95 percent in five years -- trading at around 85 euros in January 2021.

S.Abdullah--SF-PST