Ubisoft’s perilous start to 2026 continues. Shortly after the company shares dropped by over 30%, union members at Ubisoft called for an international strike after Ubisoft announced 200 people would be laid off. All of this is the result of an operational restructure, consolidating all of Ubisoft’s resources into just five “creative houses.”
Union workers have been angry with Ubisoft for a while. Mismanagement, no prior communications before layoffs, and an uncomfortable working environment are the core issues. While speaking with GameDeveloper.com, union representatives for Solidaires Informatique, Marc Rutschlé and Chakib Mataoui, had some strong complaints with the current Ubisoft CEO.
Here are some pretty scathing comments from Mataoui about Yves Guillemot, current Ubisoft CEO:
“If you just put your white male friends in [those jobs], then you don’t promote any diversity or get any new opinions or ideas… We are in a creative job. We need new ideas to come in to [help us] make great new games. But we don’t have that. We don’t have this mindset for creativity.”
Nepotism and Mismanagement Accusation
Today’s Ubisoft is not the Ubisoft you grew up with. Back in 2025, Tencent invested $1.25 billion into a new Ubisoft subsidiary, Vantage Studios. They acquired 25% of this new subsidiary, and just a couple of months later, Charlie Guillemot was appointed as co-CEO of this subsidiary. For context, Tencent is a gigantic Chinese tech conglomerate that controls Riot Games, Supercell, Epic Games (40% share), and now Ubisoft. Charlie Guillemot is the son of Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft CEO.
The union workers and many Ubisoft employees feel that putting Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege under the control of the CEO’s son is less of a strategic pivot and more of a consolidation of power. Here are the thoughts of union member Marc Rutschlé:
“It’s his company, at the end of the day… But everyone around him are just yes men. That was also the issue during the sexual [harassment] scandal in 2020.”
How aggravated do your employees need to be that they’re bold enough to publicly say stuff like this? The union members have endless complaints about how Ubisoft handles employees, layoffs, return-to-office mandates, and creativity as a whole.
