Guillem, we recognized you: Ubisoft believes it can still create hits
An anonymous Ubisoft employee told GameFile in an interview that, against a backdrop of open anger from players, devs and the market, the company still thinks a big hit is possible. That claim hangs in the air — partly defiant, partly desperate.
The employee singled out a recurring sore point: management failing to patch development crises quickly enough. Top brass, they say, dodge accountability; teams end up paying the price with layoffs and scramble-mode deadlines. Small teams burned out, projects canceled — you know the cycle. e.g., several cancellations have already been confirmed, including the Prince of Persia remake.
There’s a structural pivot on paper: the shift into "creative houses" (announced in January), where major franchises were parceled out across five studios — i.e., an attempt to stop one big machine from choking on itself. The overhaul comes with a steep tab. Some projects were cut, and more job losses feel unavoidable.
In February, more than 1,200 employees struck, demanding Yves Guillemot step down. Union reps accuse the company of bad staffing choices and chronic overwork; the protests are loud and raw, not corporate-speak.
Still — and this is the odd, stubborn part — the anonymous source finds reasons to hope. Not because everything suddenly looks fixed, but because the reorg might finally change incentive lines and team ownership. It’s tentative, maybe naïve, but not impossible. (Human instincts: cling to what could work, complain about what doesn’t, repeat.)
Whether that hope pays off? Time will tell, and not in neat quarterly reports.