Ubisoft's layoff bloodbath continues, with one in six German employees asked to resign voluntarily.

The axe falls again on Ubisoft's Düsseldorf, Berlin and Mainz studios, which are responsible for the Anno franchise.

The ax falls again on the shoulders of Ubisofts Dusseldorf, Berlin and Mainz, responsible for the Anno franchise.

Following yesterday's news that Ubisoft plans to shut down Ubisoft Redlynx Finland and lay off 70 Ubisoft Singapore employees, Game File brings us even more dire news: the publisher plans to cut its German workforce by up to 100 employees. Aiming for voluntary layoffs by buyout, rather than layoffs, this massacre is more successful at the ultra-successful French company.

Game File spoke with a Ubisoft representative who said, "In Germany, we started discussions with the works council last week regarding a proposed voluntary exit plan at Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Berlin and Ubisoft Mainz." The goal is to encourage about 100 of the roughly 600 employees at the three studios to quit in exchange for the buyout. Game File sources said that figure is based on an individual's monthly salary multiplied by 1.5 and then multiplied by the number of years they have worked with the company.

A German works council, or Betriebsrat, is an elected group of employees within a company who then work with management to negotiate working conditions, voice employee opinions, and improve bargaining power. In some ways it is similar to a union, but German unions represent an entire industry, while works councils operate at the company level. It seems that this financial proposal has not yet been finalized with this group.

The mess of studios across the Ubisoft network can get pretty confusing when you're trying to break it all down. Dusseldorf, Berlin and Mainz are still technically grouped under the Blue Byte brand, the company formed in 1988 and responsible for legendary 1990s series such as Battle Isle and Settlers. Later, Blue Byte teamed up with creators Anno Related Design, later known as Ubisoft Mainz... and yes, there is a point where you just have to stop pulling strings.

But despite this, Ubisoft Mainz currently falls under Creative House 4 (Ubisoft's current structural strategy that has been in place since January this year), grouped with Milan, Montpellier and Ubisoft Nadeo Paris, and not the other two German groups, which are now primarily responsible for Anno, Rayman, Beyond of Good & Magic and Magic. Düsseldorf (the largest with more than 400 employees) and Berlin are instead now grouped in the new "Creative Network", a confusing title for studios not included in Creative Houses, but which exist to support each Creative House with their own projects. And god it's a headache.

But it's not nearly as much of a headache for German studio workers, who face just 185 layoffs in 2025. While buyouts are certainly a better proposition than layoffs, it's hard to imagine that this will be the last time Ubisoft's C-suite looks for savings.

Then again, if Ubisoft was hoping that any of these moves would reassure its shareholders that the bleeding edge company is about to turn itself around, it will be sorely disappointed. Yesterday's decline saw the stock fall again and it is now back below €5 for the first time in a month, down more than 95% from 2018.

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