Ubisoft has renamed its Creative House 2 business unit as Massive Entertainment, adopting the brand of the 29-year-old Swedish studio that created the Division series. The unit holds Tom Clancy's The Division, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, alongside what the company described as new original IP including March of Giants.
Ubisoft said the renamed unit will, like the company’s other Creative Houses, carry clear responsibility for the development and long-term growth of its brands. Creative House 2 had originally been dedicated to competitive and co-op shooters before Ubisoft acquired March of Giants from Amazon.
Starting today, development teams responsible for these franchises in Montreal, Paris, Sweden, and Toronto will operate under the Massive Entertainment brand, bringing together their creative and technology expertise to shape its future, grow these franchises and craft challenging experiences for dedicated player communities.
The unit is led by Christoph Hartmann, who joined as general manager in June after leaving Amazon Game Studios and who previously founded and led 2K Games. Ubisoft said last week that Natalie Francis was joining as studio manager of the Malmo office, having held senior roles at Avalanche Studios and DICE. Hartmann said bringing the teams in Montreal, Paris, Sweden and Toronto under one identity gives them the chance to combine their expertise, shape the next generation of the franchises, create new games and IP, and push the studio’s craft and technology forward.
A 1997 studio brand returns
Massive was previously a standalone studio in Malmo, Sweden, founded in 1997 and bought by Ubisoft in 2008 after Activision sold it following its purchase of Vivendi. It made its name with Ground Control and World in Conflict before delivering the Division series, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws, and it developed the Snowdrop engine used across several Ubisoft titles. When Ubisoft laid off staff at Massive and Ubisoft Stockholm in January, the studio was described as working on an unannounced innovative tech project.
Where the Creative Houses stand
Ubisoft announced the move to a Creative Houses structure in late 2025 and confirmed the details in January 2026. It has now named leaders for every house except Creative House 4, following the confirmation of Julien Bares as general manager of Houses 3 and 5 and Thomas Andren as general manager of Creative Network, the company’s centralised production resource. Vantage Studios, the joint venture with Tencent, holds Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six under co-CEOs Christophe Derennes and Charlie Guillemot.
The original shift to Creative Houses came alongside delays and cancellations of several games and what Ubisoft called a final round of cost-cutting, after years of underperformance and a restructuring that closed studios in Belgrade, Halifax, Leamington, Stockholm and Winnipeg and cut staff across its worldwide operations. Ubisoft would not confirm whether that process is complete.
