Ubisoft Announces 380 Job Cuts Like a Game Reveal Under Embargo: 'Companies Deserve to Publicly Eat Sh*t'

Global layoffs are accelerating as rapidly-evolving AI increasingly replaces jobs across industries, including the gaming sector. Announcements in the video game industry are often embargoed, which means that media outlets receive information about a new game or trailer in advance so that they can prepare a writeup that can go live as soon as the company reveals the new officially. Assassin's Creed creator Ubisoft had an unusual plan for its latest embargo announcement, which landed the gaming giant in hot soup.

Ubisoft's decision to embargo the layoff announcement has raised questions, with critics extending beyond the gaming arena weighing in on the controversy. Ubisoft shuttered two more studios in Winnipeg and Belgrade this week, as well as made additional changes at its Barcelona studio, resulting in 380 total job losses due to the ongoing organisational restructuring.

The company confirmed layoffs to the press first, but the update came with a 1 pm ET embargo, which is generally meant for reviews and product reveals rather than people's livelihoods.

Public Outcry Over the Loss of Livelihoods

When it comes to layoffs, journalists often visit companies after receiving a tip from an insider who's been impacted, and not the other way around, like in the case of Ubisoft.

Insider Gaming first broke the news about the store closure in Winnipeg based on sources from within Ubisoft. However, most other outlets reportedly received information under embargo, which triggered a massive backlash on social media, with some users seeking the closure of the game developer entirely, while others wanted this instance to be a lesson for game developers and that they should never work for big corporate games studios.

'I guess after all the layoff news this past year, Ubisoft wants to control the flow of information to their liking. It's not a good precedent,' wrote on user on Reddit.

Amid public outcry among developers and members of the press, Ubisoft had justified the embargo in at least one instance by stating that the Belgrade employees were still being informed about the layoffs.

The game developer likely put several journalists in a bind, as some of them who reportedly agreed to the embargo highlighted that Ubisoft didn't share the specifics but asked them to adhere to it anyway.

Layoffs Without Advance Notice on the Rise

Layoffs are a sensitive matter, and it amounts to institutional failure when workers learn about their terminations from journalists instead of the company, which could result in panic and uncertainty.

According to Aftermath, the bigger problem here is that people seldom get time to emotionally or financially prepare for layoffs, as companies generally make announcements callously, regardless of how many years the employee has worked at the company.

'In those cases, workers deserve all the advance notice they can get—regardless of where it comes from—and companies deserve to publicly eat s**t,' according to the media outlet.

'Am I glad we published articles on layoffs today? Hell no. But I am glad that we did what we were supposed to do,' Aftermath's Tom Henderson had stated. 'Personally, I think as an industry, we're running into quite dangerous ground when we start abiding by embargoes about layoffs, but even more so when we publish the info like we learned info from sources rather than the company itself.'