Ubisoft has expanded the remit of Swedish studio Massive Entertainment – responsible for The Division series, Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – to become a second major part of the company and include more of its studios and game brands. Ubisoft also revealed Massive’s work on a brand new, original game called March of Giants.
Ubisoft’s Creative House 2 cluster of studios now joins the expanded Massive Entertainment brand, the company announced this week, which means Massive Entertainment now governs the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell brands, and multiple studios around the world.
“The Massive Entertainment brand builds on a nearly three-decade legacy established in Sweden through its games and technology, earning the trust of players and recognition from industry peers alike,” Massive said in a press release.
Christoph Hartmann, who was appointed as general manager of Ubisoft Creative House 2 earlier this year, has become general manager of Massive Entertainment amidst the reorganisation. “Bringing our teams together under one identity gives us the opportunity to combine the creative energy and expertise across Montréal, Paris, Sweden and Toronto to shape the next generation of these iconic franchises, create new games and IPs, and push our craft and technology forward,” he said.
Nothing further was revealed about March of Giants, other than its name, and that it’s an original game idea.
This is another step in Ubisoft’s ongoing restructuring, which previously saw the publisher form a new subsidiary company called Vantage Studios – following a €1.16bn Tencent investment – to oversee its biggest gaming brands: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six. This new move establishes Massive Entertainment as the other multi-franchise-leading subsidiary within Ubisoft.
As a result of this reorganisation, Ubisoft has undergone several rounds of layoffs. In January, the company closed its Halifax and Stockholm studios and laid off staff at Ubisoft Abu Dhabi, Redlynx, and even Massive Entertainment itself. In March, Ubisoft reportedly let go of 105 staff at Ghost Recon studio Red Storm Entertainment, relegating it to a support studio. And in June, Ubisoft reportedly shuttered its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios, and removed staff at Ubisoft Barcelona – amounting to 380 layoffs.
