Today, Ubisoft has announced a “major organizational, operational and portfolio reset.” Ubisoft said that the decision is “driven by the continued shift toward a persistently more selective AAA market and an increasingly competitive shooter landscape, combined with the growing challenge for publishers to create brands in a context of higher costs.” With the changes, six games have been canceled, including the long-awaited Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake, seven games have been delayed, and two studios have been closed.
Ubisoft said that its new operating model will be centered around five specialized creative houses. Ubisoft also introduces a radically new value-creation model: “a more gamer-centric organization structured around creative genres, relying on integrated business units with faster, decentralized decision-making and a greater ability to quickly adapt to players’ expectations.”
Each creative house is organized around a distinct creative genre and designed to concentrate deep expertise in specific types of player experiences.
Creative House 1 (Vantage Studios) is focused on scaling and extending Ubisoft’s largest and most established franchises to turn them into annual billionaire brands. This includes Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six.
Creative House 2 is dedicated to the competitive and cooperative shooter experiences, including The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell.
Creative House 3 will center around a roster of select, sharp Live experiences, including For Honor, The Crew, Riders Republic, Brawlhalla, Skull & Bones.
Creative House 4 is all about the immersive fantasy worlds and narrative-driven universes, including brands such as Anno, Might & Magic, Rayman, Prince of Persia, and Beyond Good & Evil.
Creative House 5 is positioned around casual and family-friendly games. This includes franchises such as Just Dance, Idle Miner Tycoon, Ketchapp, Hungry Shark, Invincible: Guarding the Globe, Uno, Hasbro.
Following a thorough review of its content pipeline over December and January, Ubisoft’s portfolio reset has led to what they describe as a “meaningfully revised roadmap.” This has led to the cancellation of six games which include the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. According to Ubisoft, these “do not meet the new enhanced quality as well as more selective portfolio prioritization criteria at Group level.” This includes 4 unannounced titles, including 3 new IPs and a mobile title.
Seven games have been delayed in order to ensure enhanced quality benchmarks are fully met and maximize long-term value creation.
The two studio closures include the Halifax mobile studio earlier this month and the Stockhol studio. There have also been some studio restructuring at Abu Dhabi, Redlynx, and Massive.
Yves Guillemot, Founder and CEO of Ubisoft said: “On the one hand, the AAA industry has become persistently more selective and competitive with rising development costs and greater challenges in creating brands. On the other hand, exceptional AAA games, when successful, have more financial potential than ever. In this context, today, we are announcing a major reset built to create the conditions for a return to sustainable growth over time. We are transforming Ubisoft’s operating model to produce exceptional quality games on the two core pillars of our strategy, Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences.
At the center of this transformation are our Creative Houses, integrated business units now combining production and publishing and therefore unifying the gamer relationship. Each one is built around a clear genre and brand focus, with full responsibility and financial ownership, led by dedicated leadership teams. It is a radical move, relaying on a more decentrailzed creative organization with faster decision making and best-in-class cross functional core services supporting and serving each Creative House.
To put the Creative Houses in the best conditions to succeed, we decided to refocus our portfolio with a meaningfully revised 3-year roadmap and accelerate our cost reductions initiatives to rightsize the organization. We will discontinue several projects currently in development and provide additional time in certain games, to ensure enhanced quality and maximize long term value. We will also selectively close several studios and continue restructurings throughout the Group. While these decisions are difficult, they are necessary for us to build a more focused, efficient and sustainable organization over the long term.
Taken together, these measures mark a decisive turning point for Ubisoft and reflect our determination to confront challenges head-on to reshape the Group for the long term. The portfolio refocus will have a significant impact on the Group’s short term financial trajectory, particularly in fiscal years 2026 and 2027, but this reset will strengthen the Group and enable it to renew with sustainable growth and robust cash generation. Ubisoft is entering a new phase – one designed to reclaim creative leadership and build value for players and stakeholders over the long term.”