Ubisoft Barcelona is cutting 51 jobs despite the commercial success of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, which sold 2 million copies on launch day.
The Barcelona studio contributed the underwater levels, including naval quests, diving side-missions, underwater biomes, and shipwreck exploration. Staff expressed frustration that the underwater gameplay team faces layoffs despite their key role in the game's success [1, 2, 3, 4].
Layoff plans were announced in June 2026 as part of a wider Ubisoft restructuring affecting multiple studios, including closures and staff reductions in Winnipeg and Belgrade. Ubisoft Barcelona will shift focus to supporting the Rainbow Six franchise following the cuts [1, 2, 3, 4].
Affected employees organized a three-day strike from July 14 to 16, demanding cancellation of the layoffs, better severance, job security guarantees, reinstatement of remote work policies allowing up to 60% remote work, and promised promotions and pay raises. Union groups CSVI and CGT in Catalonia publicly backed the action, condemning the layoffs as unjustified [1, 2, 4].
Quality assurance lead Isabel Codina García said she had worked on Black Flag for over two years and that the layoffs were planned two weeks before the game's launch. She called it a "collective redundancy plan" and expressed bittersweet feelings after seven years at the studio [2, 3, 4].
Developer Manel Cota highlighted on social media, "Ubisoft Barcelona did all the underwater levels. And that same team is being fired right now because Ubisoft thinks that's what we deserve :)" [2].
On July 13, staff publicly shared their experiences and frustrations, just one day before starting the strike [2, 3, 4]. The strike ended on July 16, 2026 [2, 4].
