New report claims Ubisoft is facing ‘an exodus’ of developers

Ubisoft is facing a huge amount of staff turnover, with some within the company describing it as ‘the great exodus’, according to a new report by Axios.

According to the report, “at least five of the top 25-credited people from the company’s biggest 2021 game, Far Cry 6, are gone.”

VGC revealed in November that Dan Hay, an executive producer on the Far Cry franchise was leaving the company.

“After more than 10 years at Ubisoft, Dan Hay has announced that he will be pursuing a new chapter in his professional life and he will be leaving on November 12,” Ubisoft told VGC.

The Axios report continues that “Ubisoft’s Montreal and Toronto studios [are] each down at least 60 total workers in the last six months.”

According to interviews conducted by Axios with current and former employees, a range of factors is influencing the developers. These include:

“low pay, an abundance of competitive opportunities, frustration at the company’s creative direction, and unease at Ubisoft’s handling of a workplace misconduct scandal that flared in mid-2020.”

One former Ubisoft worker told Axios: “There’s something about management and creative scraping by with the bare minimum that really turned me away.”

Ubisoft has recently confirmed that it’s working on a remake of the original Splinter Cell, which was released in 2002.

The project is being led by Ubisoft Toronto and “will draw from the rich canvas of the brand”, it said in an announcement blog.

The game is being rebuilt with the Snowdrop engine—which also powers The Division and is being used to build Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Ubisoft’s upcoming Star Wars game—”to deliver new-generation visuals and gameplay, and the dynamic lighting and shadows the series is known for”.

VGC exclusively revealed in October that Ubisoft had greenlit what will be its first mainline Splinter Cell game in a decade.

Development sources told us that the title had been put into production as a means of winning back fans frustrated by recent efforts to revive the franchise in the mobile and VR spaces.

Following VGC’s report, it was claimed that Ubisoft could take inspiration from IO Interactive‘s Hitman franchise for its next Splinter Cell game.