Striking staff at Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced co-developer Ubisoft Barcelona have slammed the company’s initial severance pay offer as “below any resonable standard,” after employees were told that up to 51 jobs were being eliminated.
Layoffs at Ubisoft Barcelona were announced last month as part of a wider wave of job losses across the firm. 380 staff are being let go in this latest downsizing, spread across Ubisoft offices in Winnipeg and Belgrade (which will close completely), in Barcelona, and in the company’s global publishing division.
At Ubisoft Barcelona, up to 51 jobs have been placed at risk as Ubisoft plans to cut the team’s size and restrict it to working just on the Rainbow Six franchise in future, IGN understands.
The plight of Barcelona’s staff has sparked headlines, with the likely job losses contrasted against the commercial success of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, which sold an impressive 2 million copies in just 24 hours. While development on Resynced was led by Ubisoft Singapore, Barcelona contributed significantly to the title. It has previously been reported that the company handled Resynced’s underwater diving side-missions, though IGN understands that the studio also developed a swathe of other locations, quests, and contracts.
Several main quests were handled by Barcelona’s Assassin’s Creed team during more than two years of Resynced development, including reportedly several showcased during pre-release hands-on previews, alongside development on a specific in-game region (Gibara), plus work on enemy combat AI and bosses.
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