Ubisoft lays off 55 employees at Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft Stockholm

Ubisoft has announced a restructuring at The Division developer Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft Stockholm, resulting in the loss of 55 jobs.

The details:

• As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, the restructuring affects Ubisoft Stockholm and Massive's Malmö office, with an internal email stating that the job cuts were not related to performance and that "the long-term direction for the studios remains unchanged."
• Massive and Ubisoft Stockholm will continue focusing on The Division franchise, including development of a third game and continued support for the second, as well as the Snowdrop engine and Ubisoft Connect. This comes shortly after The Division 3 executive producer Julian Gerighty stated that the game will have "as big an impact as The Division 1."
• The restructuring comes during a wave of changes for Ubisoft, which opened Vantage Studios last year, a new subsidiary part-owned by Tencent, which now oversees its biggest franchises. Last week, it was confirmed that the publisher had shuttered Ubisoft Halifax just one month after its staff had voted to unionize, but the company claimed that the decision was a move to “streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce costs” and has no connection to the unionization efforts.