Motives for Ubisoft Halifax closure still being questioned 

CWA Canada, the union representing workers at Ubisoft Halifax, filed a labour complaint Wednesday alleging the video game studio’s closure on Jan. 7 was related to their recent unionization, despite company claims otherwise.

The closure took place three weeks after 61 of the workplace’s 71 employees unionized with CWA Canada and became the first Ubisoft union in North America. The studio’s closure blindsided union representatives and Ubisoft Halifax employees alike.

Carmel Smyth, the president of CWA Canada, is still skeptical as to why.

“Companies close all the time, yes, but normally there’s advance notice to the workers. There’s advance notice to the regulators, advance notice to the union,” Smyth said. “None of that happened here. It’s a very unusual situation.”

The Halifax studio worked on the popular mobile game Assassin’s Creed: Rebellion.

While no Ubisoft representatives were available for an interview this week, an email from the company’s PR manager, Caroline Stelmach, said the closure is linked to Ubisoft’s “need for restructuring and cost-optimization, which began two years ago.” 

Smyth says they have yet to see proof of these claims.

“If it really is a financial decision — who am I to say that it’s not? Perhaps it is. Then let’s see the proof on paper. Let’s see the documents, the emails, the phone calls that show that there’s a dire financial strait that they have to close the office.”

In her email, Stelmach also provided a statement from the company about employees affected by the closure:

“Supporting those impacted remains our top priority. We are actively working to enhance severance packages for all Halifax employees and will continue to engage with the union’s legal representatives throughout this process. Our focus is easing the transition as much as possible.”

CWA Canada was to meet with Ubisoft again on Friday. The union’s priority remains fighting for better compensation and new jobs for the laid-off workers.

One of these workers is Jon Huffman, a former lead programmer at Ubisoft Halifax. 

Huffman says he was disappointed by Ubisoft’s response to their concerns, describing it as “very corporate.” While the video game giant cites financial reasons as the cause of the studio’s closure, Huffman says unions in the gaming industry can be misconceived as “anti-business” by corporations.

“Fundamentally, the union is a bunch of workers coming together because they want to keep doing what they’re doing and they want to be treated fairly while doing it,” Huffman said. 

In addition to Ubisoft Halifax, there have already been an estimated 871 gaming industry layoffs worldwide in the first half of January 2026. 

Michael Straw, a journalist who’s been covering the gaming industry since 2012 and tracking layoffs within it since 2024, says mass layoffs are not uncommon. 

“That’s just how it is. A game gets made, it gets released, it’s updated. Once that cycle’s done and they only need people to maintain it, they let people go,” Straw said.

“What we’ve seen though is a scary trend of companies hiring hundreds of more people in some instances that they didn’t need.”

In 2025 Straw tracked more than 5,000 layoffs in the industry, although he estimates the real number is closer to 10,000 as companies don’t always disclose the number of jobs affected.

In the 2025-2026 earnings report released in November, Ubisoft reported progress in their cost reduction program had resulted in a decrease of 1,500 employees in the last 12 months. 

In October 2025, the company introduced a “targeted voluntary leave program” at their Nordic studios which allowed employees to “take their next career step on their own terms” and provided “financial and career assistance”. This included Ubisoft Stockholm and Massive Entertainment, which saw the layoffs of 55 additional jobs on Jan. 13.  

Huffman says no voluntary leave program was introduced at Ubisoft Halifax before the studio was shut down. 

Ubisoft did not respond to questions about a voluntary leave program in Halifax.