Ubisoft's Nostalgia Gamble: 2026 Remakes Amid Studio Closures and Layoffs

Ubisoft developers working on 2026 projects amid studio closures

Ubisoft's 2026 nostalgia push collides with a wave of developer exodus and studio closures. The company announced remakes of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time for 2026, alongside a re-release of The Division.

These moves come as the studio shuttered its Halifax location "only weeks after unionising" and cut 55 roles at Massive Entertainment and Stockholm teams through a "voluntary career transition program."

Massive Entertainment clarified: "Our plans for the immediate future haven't changed; the studio will continue to work on the new content coming to The Division 2 this year." Meanwhile, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora received a third expansion DLC, and Star Wars Outlaws was ported to Nintendo Switch 2.

Ubisoft's 2026 strategy includes "streamlining operations" following RedLynx's 2025 closure and "additional steps" to reshape its development landscape.