Ubisoft has turned a restructuring into a market wipeout. The Assassin’s Creed maker saw its shares crater in Paris after saying it will cancel projects, shut studios and cut guidance.
The stock dropped 28 per cent to €4.75 by 9:18 am in Paris before trading was halted. It was the biggest intraday fall since October 2019, which is not the sort of record you frame.
Ubisoft said it expects a loss before interest and tax of €1 billion ($1.2 billion) in fiscal 2025-26 because of the restructuring, driven by a one-off writedown of about €650 million. That is a chunky admission that some of its work is not worth carrying on the books.
The plan includes closing studios in Stockholm and Halifax, Canada, to streamline operations. Ubisoft said it will have cut at least €100 million in fixed costs by March compared to the latest financial year, a year ahead of target.
It wants to slash another €200 million in costs across the next two years.
Ubisoft now expects net bookings of around €1.5 billion for the year, alongside a €330 million gross margin reduction versus previous guidance. It said six games have been discontinued, including a remake of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, while seven other unnamed titles have been delayed.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Edward James said: “Delaying seven games and cancelling six is massive and is a sign that the internal operating model is broken and management doesn’t have a grasp on the development cycle, in my view.”
Ubisoft has already been battered by post-pandemic production crunch chaos and repeated flagship delays.
The company has struggled to stay competitive lately, with big-name releases such as Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws failing to light up an increasingly crowded market. When the expensive bets don’t pay off, the back catalogue suddenly has to do all the work.
Ubisoft said it will reorganise into five “creative houses”, each covering a genre with “faster, decentralised decision-making,” backed from April by a network of studios sharing development resources and core services.
Ubisoft’s chief executive officer, Yves Guillemot, said: “The portfolio refocus will have a significant impact on the group’s short-term financial trajectory, particularly in fiscal years 2026 and 2027, but this reset will strengthen the group and enable it to renew with sustainable growth and robust cash generation.”
Last year, Ubisoft outlined a carve-out for a first unit called Vantage Studios, built around franchises including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six. Tencent Holdings Ltd invested €1.16 billion to acquire a 25 per cent stake in the venture, a deal that closed in November.
Beyond Vantage Studios, Ubisoft said it will split the rest of the lineup into genre-focused units covering shooters such as The Division, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell, plus live games like For Honor, The Crew and Riders Republic. It will also run a fantasy worlds bucket spanning Anno, Might & Magic, Rayman, Prince of Persia and Beyond Good & Evil, alongside casual and family titles such as Just Dance, Idle Miner Tycoon, Ketchapp and Hungry Shark.
Ubisoft is now banking on roughly €330 million in net bookings for the last quarter, helped by partnerships and strong sales from its back catalogue.
