Developers at Ubisoft Barcelona went on strike in July over a redundancy plan that would cut 51 jobs at the studio, weeks after the launch of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, a remake the studio contributed to.
Rock Paper Shotgun reported that the three-day walkout ran from 14 to 16 July and was organised by the Coordinadora Sindical del Videojuego, or CSVI. GamesIndustry.biz reported the industrial action as organised by the Spanish union Confederacion General del Trabajo. Both outlets put the number of affected staff at 51.
Citing VGC, Rock Paper Shotgun reported that the striking developers set out four demands:
- Cancellation of the 51 proposed layoffs
- Stronger job security guarantees to prevent future mass layoffs
- A return to a policy permitting up to 60 percent remote working
- Promotions and pay rises the developers say they were previously promised
A pivot to Rainbow Six
GamesIndustry.biz reported that the cuts were first flagged alongside the closures of Ubisoft's Winnipeg and Belgrade studios, as part of a restructuring the publisher introduced earlier in the year, and that Ubisoft Barcelona will now focus exclusively on the Rainbow Six franchise.
QA and QC lead Isabel Codina Garcia, who both outlets quoted from LinkedIn, said the whole Assassin's Creed team at the Barcelona studio was told of the collective redundancy plan two weeks before launch, and that Vantage Studios had stated there would be no further mandates for the studio despite the team proposing new Assassin's Creed projects.
After seven years at Ubisoft Barcelona, this is not how I imagined it would end.
Tech and gameplay animator Manel Cota wrote on social media that Ubisoft Barcelona was responsible for Black Flag Resynced's underwater shipwreck exploration sections, adding that the same team was being let go because, in his words, Ubisoft thinks that is what they deserve.
GamesIndustry.biz noted that Black Flag Resynced held a Metacritic score of 84 at the time of its report, making it the best-reviewed entry in the series since the original Black Flag in 2013. The publisher has said its restructuring, which targets savings of 200 million euros, would be its final round of cost-cutting and studio closures; it has also closed its Stockholm and Halifax studios and cancelled three new IPs along with the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake.
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