Ubisoft cancels six games and delays others amid a restructuring into five genre-specific “creative houses”; it expects net bookings of ~€1.5B for FY 2025-2026
Ubisoft Entertainment SA is canceling game projects, shutting down studios and cutting its guidance …
Bloomberg Benoit Berthelot
Context & Ripple Effects
Ubisoft had already signaled pressure on its release economics: a 2024 outlook warning put expected first-quarter net bookings below estimates and was followed by a sharp share-price decline. The new operating model turns that earlier bookings shortfall warning into a portfolio-level response rather than another isolated forecast revision.
Subsequent coverage of a record operating loss for the year to March and a further sales-decline outlook indicates that the restructuring’s financial stakes extended beyond a single release cycle. The stated FY 2025-2026 bookings target is therefore a near-term benchmark for whether the smaller slate can stabilize the business.
First-order effects
- Six projects are removed from Ubisoft’s development slate, while delays, studio shutdowns and the five-house structure immediately reshape work priorities for affected teams.
- Ubisoft’s near-term release cadence and revenue timing become more dependent on the projects retained through the restructuring, against its roughly €1.5B FY 2025-2026 net-bookings expectation.
Second-order effects
- Delays and cancellations reduce the number of titles moving through Ubisoft’s pipeline, concentrating execution risk in the genre-specific houses and the games they choose to advance.
- Studio closures and a narrower slate can disrupt the company’s development capacity and external production relationships as work is reassigned or ended.
Third-order effects
- If the model holds, Ubisoft would be moving from a broad, decentralized project portfolio toward tighter genre-based capital allocation, with fewer projects expected to carry more of the company’s commercial burden.
- The later loss and weaker-sales outlook suggests the reorganization will be judged less by its announced structure than by whether it produces a more predictable release and bookings profile; that outcome remains unproven.
The trend: This is one instance of large game publishers using project cuts and organizational consolidation to impose stricter portfolio discipline after repeated forecast pressure.
Related: Ubisoft · Ubisoft Entertainment SA · Ubisoft’s 2024 bookings warning · Ubisoft’s record operating loss and sales outlook
Related Coverage
- Ubisoft Cancels 6 Projects Including Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake, Closes 2 Studios and Confirms Further Layoffs in Major Company Restructure IGN · Tom Phillips
- Ubisoft cancels Prince of Persia remake as part of major reorganization The Verge · Jay Peters
- Ubisoft reveals new Creative House structure, cancels games and announces “final” round of cost-cutting and studio closures to drive €200m savings GamesIndustry.biz · Jon Hicks
- Ubisoft restructuring into five ‘creative houses’ with ‘refocused’ portfolio MobileSyrup · Bradly Shankar
- Ubisoft Shake-Up: Layoffs, Studio Closures Begin in Major Reorg; Six Games Canceled, Including ‘Prince of Persia’ Remake Variety · Jennifer Maas
- Ubisoft Cancels 6 Games In Major Organisation Restructure Nintendo Life · Ollie Reynolds
- Ubisoft Announces A Brutal New Restructuring With More Investment In Gen AI And Further Job Cuts Kotaku · Ethan Gach
- Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake canceled amid wider Ubisoft shakeup Polygon.com · Ford James
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake Canceled as Ubisoft Restructures TechRaptor · Joseph Allen
- Ubisoft announces a major organizational, operational and portfolio reset to reclaim creative leadership and restore sustainable growth Ubisoft
- Ubisoft details ‘major company reset’: 6 games canned, 7 delayed, and 2 studios closed Video Games Chronicle · Andy Robinson
- Ubisoft initiates colossal restructure to become a more ‘gamer-centric’ company Game Developer · Chris Kerr
- Ubisoft reorganizes with cancellation of 6 games GamesBeat · Dean Takahashi
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake and more cancelled by Ubisoft, with layoffs potentially on the horizon Rock, Paper, Shotgun · Oisin Kuhnke
- Ubisoft Delays Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Remake Along With 6 Other Games Comic Book · Amanda Kay Oaks
- Ubisoft to Undergo Major Overhaul in Bid to Revamp Fortunes Wall Street Journal · Mauro Orru
- Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time Remake is cancelled as Ubisoft announces major internal restructuring and more layoffs and studio closures on the way PC Gamer · Andy Chalk
- Prince Of Persia Remake Cancelled And Black Flag Remake Reportedly Delayed As Ubisoft Goes All-In On AI TheGamer · Rhiannon Bevan
- Prince of Persia Remake Canceled As Ubisoft Axes 6 Games Screen Rant · Chris Carter
- Ubisoft kills 6 games, delays 7, and lays off devs as part of “major reset” Windows Central · Brendan Lowry
- Ubisoft asking all staff to return to office full-time to “boost the collective performance for AAA” GamesIndustry.biz · Jon Hicks
- Ubisoft torches Prince of Persia after huge layoffs, and even the Black Flag remake is waterlogged Destructoid · Andrej Barovic
- Long-Awaited PS5 Remake Canceled, Other Possibly Delayed PlayStation LifeStyle · Michael Ruiz
- Ubisoft unveils details of big restructuring bet Le Monde
- Ubisoft Shuts Down Halifax Studio and Scraps 6 Games in Massive $1 Billion Reset iPhone in Canada · Austin Blake
- Ubisoft cancels 6 games, delays 7 more, will focus on GaaS and generative AI Stevivor · Steve Wright
- After 6 cancellations, Ubisoft games will rely on “player-facing generative AI” to cut costs Notebookcheck · Adam Corsetti
- “We want them to be the best in the world, in every segment we're in” - Ubisoft's vision for its new Creative Houses GamesIndustry.biz · Jon Hicks
Discussion
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@princeofpersia
@princeofpersia
on x
[image]
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Pure Xbox
Fraser Gilbert
on x
Prince Of Persia Remake Team Shares Final Message Following Game's Cancellation
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@grummz
@grummz
on x
Ubisoft cancels more games and will lay off more people. So much for “the chuds were wrong, Ubisoft is doing great!.” Remember when we started, Ubisoft was strong and nobody believed we could get them to change, being so big. But we did. Let's hope the anti-woke lessons we
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@oliverjia1014
Oliver Jia
on x
The original will always be there thankfully, but this is awful news for the people who worked on this project for so many years. Unfortunately, cancelations and layoffs are just becoming the norm now. Hope the team is able to find other work.
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@gameoverthirty
@gameoverthirty
on x
Major update from #Ubisoft today. The company will continue to split into 5 different “creative houses.” Each creative house will be responsible for their own financial success and will make decisions based on their own market needs / outlook. (Reminder: Vantage Studios is house …
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@synthpotato
@synthpotato
on x
This isn't surprising. I just hope this reset means a higher bar of quality is set because it is objective fact that Ubisoft titles are not as good as they used to be. Bring back Rayman, Far Cry, The Division, Ghost Recon, Watch Dogs. They focused on live-services for too long.
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@legacykillahd
Michael
on x
Truly insane. Never trust Ubisoft with anything. Have little hope we see the new Splinter Cell project and or it ends up being good. Absolute mess of a company...
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@thencsmaster
@thencsmaster
on x
Ubisoft has to be on the verge of death or a total buyout at this point I haven't seen a game company flounder and be such a void of quality in years
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@mr_rebs_
@mr_rebs_
on x
In a media call, Ubisoft chief financial officer Frederick Duguet explained the decision to cancel Prince of Persia Sands of Times remake and 5 other games, and delay seven games including an unannounced project that (according to Jason Schrier) could be the Black Flag Remake.
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@shinobi602
@shinobi602
on x
Ubisoft details ‘major company reset’ amid reorganization efforts: ▪️6 games cancelled including four unannounced games (three were new IP), a mobile title, and Prince of Persia remake ▪️7 games have been delayed for better quality, one of which was expected before April 2026, [i…
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@nintyprime
@nintyprime
on x
While the game was recently rated, they said the decision to can the game is because it didn't meat their quality standards. It's interesting because Ubisoft of 5 years ago wouldn't care about the standards, and they closed a studio that made a super high quality PoP game just
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@jessthomas
Jess
on bluesky
The state of Ubisoft. [image]
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@stephentotilo
Stephen Totilo
on bluesky
Ubisoft cancels Prince of Persia Sands of Time remake — “discontinued 6 games that do not meet the new enhanced quality as well as more selective portfolio prioritization criteria at Group level. These include [PoP] remake as well as 4 unannounced titles, including 3 new IP's,…
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@dmc-ryan
Ryan McCaffrey
on bluesky
WTF? Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake canceled? Ubisoft NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. — And it was only one of six cancellations. So help me God if one of the other cancellations was the Splinter Cell remake... www.ign.com/articles/ubi...
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@jasonschreier
Jason Schreier
on bluesky
BREAKING: Ubisoft is canceling the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake and 5 other games (4 unannounced, 1 mobile). The company says it is also delaying 7 games (including an unannounced project believed to be a Black Flag remake) as part of a larger restructuring.
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@stephentotilo
Stephen Totilo
on bluesky
Ubisoft headcount has declined by over 3,000 people since the start of a €300 million cost reduction plan. — Today they said they plan €200 million more in cuts by March 2028 [embedded post]
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@nickjcal
Nick Calandra
on bluesky
It's interesting that we haven't heard of any executive pay cuts for driving Ubisoft into the ground. — Oh wait, that's the world we live in.
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@errant-signal.com
Chris Franklin
on bluesky
The idea that Rainbow Six or FarCry will generate a billion dollars in revenue annually as a franchise is — I mean it's an idea
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@brianpshea
Brian Shea
on bluesky
Oof. Not unexpected, but still a gut-punch. I've been saying I'm worried about Ubisoft for a couple of years now, and this feels like dam finally breaking. I don't know that these moves will turn the company around, but this is huge news from what was once one of the powerhous…
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@jasonschreier
Jason Schreier
on bluesky
For the last few weeks, rumors have been circulating that Prince of Persia: Sands of Time was completed and would be released on January 16. In reality, Ubisoft was not happy with the state of the game and decided to cancel it as part of a massive reorganization
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r/anno
r
on reddit
I really hope this doesn't affect Anno 117 development and future Anno titles
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@campuscodi.risky.biz
Catalin Cimpanu
on bluesky
Ubisoft... the company that adopted NFTs and blockchains for their games with catastrophic results... now jumps on the AI bandwagon and follows it up with major staff and game cuts. — Guess how this is gonna end up? [embedded post]
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r/pcgaming
r
on reddit
Ubisoft Cancels 6 Projects Including Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake, Closes 2 Studios and Confirms Further Layoffs in Major Company Restructure
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Pure Xbox
Fraser Gilbert
on x
Ubisoft Cancels Multiple Games, Closes Studios, And Unveils New Strategy For The Future
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r/weeklyplanetpodcast
r
on reddit
James just collapses to his knees in the podcast studio