The Ubisoft paradox: Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced record sales and new releases

Despite phenomenal financial performance and high audience interest, Ubisoft has announced plans to cut staff at the Ubisoft Barcelona studio. 51 people are subject to optimization, which is approximately 28% of the entire composition of the unit.

Record start

Assassin Creed Black Flag Resynced became a real hit for the company. In the two weeks since its July 9 release, 3.5 million copies of the game have been sold. High demand was evident even at the pre-order stage, which surpassed Skull & Bones on Steam and surpassed Assassin’s Creed Shadows by 5.39 times. The game also set the record for peak online Steam among all parts of the series – about 105,000 simultaneous users.

Reasons for reduction

Despite the successes, the studio in Barcelona is going through a stage of reorganization. In particular, management will reorient the unit to work on the Rainbow Six series. Workers who created the underwater levels for Black Flag Resynced tried to fight for their jobs, with a three-day strike at the studio in July. However, Ubisoft insists on optimization, which also affects the closure of offices in Winnipeg and Belgrade. The company’s financials for the first quarter show a 9.2% drop in net income to €255.8 million ($278.9 million, €255.8 million [11,740,600 hryvnias]), although this result was higher than management’s initial forecasts.