'The company has turned its back on us': Black Flag Resynced developers at Ubisoft Barcelona are being laid off instead of celebrating the series' latest hit

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been a massive success for Ubisoft, having sold two million copies in a day and breaking the series' concurrent player records on Steam by nearly 40,000. Despite this good news, the company is planning to lay off 51 developers at Ubisoft Barcelona. These layoffs were announced last month, alongside reductions at Ubisoft's teams in Winnipeg and Belgrade.

Ubisoft Barcelona has a long history of supporting the publisher's larger studios, including Assassin's Creed, The Crew, Ghost Recon, and Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Of course, its latest efforts have been on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, where it was responsible for all the underwater sections. Those beautiful (terrifying) diving bell sites? Brought to life by Ubisoft Barcelona.

"Ubisoft Barcelona did all the underwater levels," explains Manel Cota, a tech and gameplay animator on the team, on social media. "And that same team is being fired right now because Ubisoft thinks that's what we deserve :)"

This frustration from a blow right as you should be celebrating is echoed by quality assurance lead Isabel Codina García. "Today is a bittersweet day," García said on social media. After having worked on the Black Flag remake for over two and a half years, "the whole AC team at Ubisoft Barcelona was informed of a collective redundancy plan."

"After seven years at Ubisoft Barcelona, this is not how I imagined it would end. But I am genuinely grateful for the people I have met and everything I have learned along the way."

But the team isn't going quietly. The Spanish union La Confederación General del Trabajo has called for a three-day strike, starting today, over the planned cuts at Ubisoft Barcelona. "After an intense production, the company claims a 'strategic shift' to justify these layoffs," the flyer reads. "After years of dedication to our team, the company has turned its back on us. We will never see the fruits of our labour, and the reward for our hard work will be the loss of our jobs."

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Rory has made the fatal error of playing way too many live service games at once, and somehow still finding time for everything in between. Sure, he’s an expert at Destiny 2, Call of Duty, and more, but at what cost? He’s even sunk 1,000 hours into The Elder Scrolls Online over the years. At least he put all those hours spent grinding challenges to good use over the years as a freelancer and guides editor. In his spare time, he’s also an avid video creator, often breaking down the environmental design of his favourite games. If you can’t track him down, he’s probably lost in a cave with a bunch of dwarves shouting “rock and stone” to no end.