PieFedUbisoft Closes Halifax Studio Just After Employees Unionized
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insider-gaming.com/ubisoft-closes-halifax-studi…
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comadorI don’t like Assassin’s Creed or Tom Clancy’s games enough anyway: Ubisoft now blocked on my Steam list.
Random_Character_AHaven’t touched anything Ubisoft for a very long time. It appears I still don’t have to.
they same ubisoft, that used a show on apple tv+(mythic quest) to make good propaganda about the company to paint a positive light.
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“In Canada, it is unlawful for a business to close because its workers decide to unionize,” the statement reads. “While we are not saying that this is what happened here, we will be demanding information from Ubisoft about the reason for the sudden decision to close.”
“Over the past 24 months, Ubisoft has undertaken company-wide actions to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce costs,” the company said. “As part of this, Ubisoft has made the difficult decision to close its Halifax studio. 71 positions will be affected.
Shady assholes would use that excuse to happen to close a branch that unionized… we know why…
At least Canada has some precedent of courts ruling against this sort of thing. Most of the precedent I’ve found related to the Quebec Labour Code, so it might not be the same with Nova Scotia, but the jist of how the Supreme Court has ruled is: Employers have a right to cease operations, but if that happens in the “prohibited period” when union negotiations are ongoing, that violates the right of association, and the employees can be entitled to damages.
I don’t know how the facts of this case will line up with NS law, but I would think that given that there’s a Charter right underpinning these ideas that they probably have some kind of case here. The burden of proof will possibly be on Ubisoft to show that it was a “normal” decision, based on my quick reading of some of the precedent.
Original: The layoffs across the video game industry are getting started early in 2026. Ubisoft has announced the closure of Ubisoft Halifax.
The closure will see 71 people lose their jobs.
The news of the studio’s shutdown comes just days after it was announced that 61 of the studio’s employees joined the Game & Media Workers Guild of Canada, Local 30111. The certification for the union came on December 18, 2025, and was branded as the Ubisoft Workers of Canada, Halifax.
In a statement, Ubisoft says that decision comes after two years of “company-wide actions to streamline operations”.
“Over the past 24 months, Ubisoft has undertaken company-wide actions to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce costs,” the company said. “As part of this, Ubisoft has made the difficult decision to close its Halifax studio. 71 positions will be affected.
“We are committed to supporting all impacted team members during this transition with resources, including comprehensive severance packages and additional career assistance.”
The decision, Ubisoft claims, was made “well before” the staff unionized. Ubisoft added that it respected its employees right to join a union. Insider Gaming has reached out for a statement from members of the Union. Should that be received, it will be added to this story.
Prior to its closure, Ubisoft Halifax was working on mobile games for Rainbow Six and Assassin’s Creed.
Halifax is one of the cheapest places globally to rent office space and employ talented software developers with a CS degree. I am skeptical that it was on the chopping block before now.
I’ve been avoiding ubi for a decade or longer because they suck in many other ways, but here’s another reason to not give them a single penny.
If they don’t want you to form a union and go to such lenghts to prevent unions from forming, you know that unions are a good thing for workers and a bad thing for bosses and owners. You might want to think about joining your union.
Absolute scumbags.
Need more to unionise at the same time.
Jail.
Ubisoft is actually the worst possible video game corporation.
They almost never make a game that’s worthy of anyone’s time, their business practices are scummy, they kill off their games and tell people to get used to not owning them, treat their workers like shit and their stock price is in the gutter so not even the wallstreet ghouls benefit from how awful they are.
It’s incredible.
Here if over 50% want to form a union its illegal to stop it. I wonder if the USA has that?
This was in Canada… and Ubisoft is French.