Ubisoft reportedly seeks voluntary redundancies at three German studios, targeting ~100 jobs

By Jake Campbell•15 October 2026

✓ Fact-Checked & Verified

Ubisoft has opened talks over voluntary redundancies at three of its German studios — Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Berlin and Ubisoft Mainz — with the publisher reportedly hoping to reduce its headcount by around 100 workers.

The discussions were initiated last week between Ubisoft and a works council representing staff at the studios. A Ubisoft representative confirmed the move to Game File, reporting that the company aims to cut approximately 100 positions through the voluntary departure plan.

In Germany, we initiated discussions with the Works Council last week regarding a proposed voluntary departure plan across Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Berlin & Ubisoft Mainz.

Ubisoft representative

The decision to offer voluntary redundancies before potentially resorting to standard layoffs appears linked to German labour laws being stronger than those in countries such as the US, where it is comparatively straightforward for companies to let go of staff.

Of the three affected studios, Ubisoft Mainz — primary developers on the Anno series — is likely the most familiar to players. Founded in 1995 as Related Designs, its latest release was last year’s Anno 117: Pax Romana.

Ubisoft Düsseldorf is the oldest of the three, having been founded in 1988 as Blue Byte. It has spent recent years contributing to Rainbow Six Siege and Rayman Legends Retold, work also carried out by Ubisoft Berlin — the youngest studio, which opened in 2018.

The Berlin studio was established just before the pandemic, at a time when Ubisoft launched an aggressive expansion across Germany. “We see the potential to grow to more than 1,000 talents by the end of 2023,” German studio boss Benedikt Grindel said at the time. “We have very ambitious plans for our existing and future projects and are looking for creative minds from all areas of game development.”

That growth talk has since given way to repeated waves of cuts across Ubisoft’s studios, including Singapore and Trials developer Redlynx; Winnipeg, Belgrade and Barcelona; long-time Tom Clancy studio Red Storm; and the company’s Paris headquarters. Changes to remote working policies have also contributed to strikes at studios in France and Italy.