Prince of Persia remake canceled as Ubisoft ‘rightsizes’
It's an 'operational and portfolio reset'
On Wednesday, Ubisoft announced a major reorganization. The press release is full of business-speak, but it’s all bad news both financially and for gamers. Ubisoft’s stock price has dropped 34% as a result.
Ubisoft is expecting to have a $1 billion operating loss in 2026. The official statement describes this as:
“The portfolio refocus will have a significant impact on the Group’s short term financial trajectory, particularly in fiscal years 2026 and 2027, but this reset will strengthen the Group and enable it to renew with sustainable growth and robust cash generation. Ubisoft is entering a new phase – one designed to reclaim creative leadership and build value for players and stakeholders over the long term.”
The refocus means a lot of different things. First, they’re closing the studios in Halifax — which happened two weeks ago — and Stockholm. They will also be “restructuring” the Abu Dhabi, RedLynx, and Massive studios.
The remaining studios will be organized into five “Creative Houses” defined by genre: “billionaire brands” like Assassin’s Creed, co-op shooters like The Division, games as a service (GaaS)/Live experiences like For Honor, narrative games like Prince of Persia, and casual games like Uno and Hasbro properties.
This is really neither here nor there with the scope of the larger announcements, but the press release also includes the announcement that, “To support the effective implementation and operation of this new model, the Group also intends to return to five days per week on site for all teams.”
Ubisoft also announced the cancellation of six games including the upcoming Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (one of my all-time favorite games) and four unannounced titles. They’ll be refocusing their efforts and “allocat[ing] additional development time to 7 games.” It does not sound like Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been cancelled.
Let’s do another chunk of jargon from the official statement:
“A radically new value-creation model: a more gamer-centric organization, structured around creative genres, relying on integrated business units with faster, decentralized decision-making and a greater ability to quickly adapt to players’ expectations. This transformation will be supported by a rightsized and more agile organization, delivering improved structural efficiencies over time.The new operating model will further empower the execution of the Group’s strategy, centered on Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences, supported by targeted investments, deeper specialization, and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI.”
A lot of that is corporate wording that means “layoffs.” An equally upsetting part is the investment in player-facing generative AI. Ubisoft has been going hard on AI for a while now, even as other devs are taking a firm stance against the use of AI.
Ubisoft founder and CEO Yves Guillemot adds:
“On the one hand, the AAA industry has become persistently more selective and competitive with rising development costs and greater challenges in creating brands. On the other hand, exceptional AAA games, when successful, have more financial potential than ever.”