How Ubisoft Barcelona Created Ubisoft’s Best Work in Years, Only to be Rewarded by Being Laid Off

Ubisoft Barcelona continues to protest with strikes after 51 of the studio’s developers were announced as being impacted by layoffs in June, just days after their content for Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced was completed.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is understood to be one of Ubisoft’s biggest releases in years, outpacing other big releases like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Star Wars Outlaws. Despite Black Flag Resynced’s success, though, 51 developers at Ubisoft Barcelona, many of whom worked on the game, are facing layoffs.

The news was first announced in June, when Ubisoft said it had decided to turn Ubisoft Barcelona into a Rainbow Six studio.

Ubisoft Barcelona’s Work on Black Flag Resynced

Manel Cota, a technical and gameplay animator at Ubisoft Barcelona, recently had his tweet go viral after announcing that the Barcelona team was responsible for the underwater levels of Resynced, which has been praised since release as being one of the game’s best features.

But to be honest, Cota’s tweet doesn’t quite give enough credit to what Ubisoft Barcelona managed to achieve with Resynced with such a small team.

Documents were sent to Insider Gaming under the condition that they do not go public to reveal that Ubisoft Barcelona worked on:

• All the swimming systems
• All the underwater mechanics, biomes, animal behavior
• All the underwater wrecks
• All the smuggler dens
• 3 main naval quests: Proper Defenses, Diving for Medicines, Devil’s Advocate
• 15 side quest naval contracts
• 4 Assassin Contracts
• The region of Gibara with its locations: Crooked Island, Salt Lagoon, and Mariguana Island
• All bosses (divided with Quebec once they entered the project)and all combat enemy AI (until Quebec entered the project)

Impending Layoffs

Despite the game’s success and all that Ubisoft Barcelona staff contributed, though, everyone will soon be laid off.

Employees tell me that not only will those who worked on the game lose their jobs, but Ubisoft is also rubbing salt in the wound by offering the bare minimum in severance compensation. Spanish law requires a minimum severance of 20 days’ pay per year worked at the company, and according to sources, Ubisoft is currently only offering 25 days.

Sources say that it’s common in the industry for companies to offer between 35 and 45 days of severance per year worked, and because Black Flag Resynced is by all accounts a success, many thanks in part to Ubisoft Barcelona’s involvement, employees feel entitled to a fairer severance package.

Ubisoft Barcelona will also be striking again on July 16th at 10:30am at Torre Diagonal 00 and encourages fans of the game to join them in support.

Both current and former employees can contact me securely and anonymously at [email protected] if you would like to weigh in on current events or share your story.

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