Ubisoft's Avatar and The Division Studio Massive Entertainment hit with layoffs

Ubisoft will restructure its Massive Entertainment studios in Sweden, the developers responsible for The Division and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The restructuring will result in redundancies as approximately 55 people are expected to lose their jobs.

News of Ubisoft's massive restructuring, reported by Gamesindustry.biz, comes from an internal studio email detailing the publisher's plans. The email says the job losses are unrelated to performance but rather the result of restructuring, confirming that “the long-term direction of the studios remains unchanged”.

Massive Entertainment Studios is responsible for The Division and Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora

As disturbing as it is to hear about layoffs anywhere in the industry, the part about plans remaining unchanged will be a faint silver lining for fans of The Division. The Division 3 was announced by Ubisoft in 2023, and while the team working on it will seemingly be smaller, it sounds like the game is still in development and work on it will continue as planned.

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Although Massive is best known for its work on The Division series, it also hosts the team behind Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Despite Avatar coming out at the end of 2023, it took two years for it to get the recognition it deserves. The combination of Fire and Ash hitting theaters and Frontiers of Pandora getting movie-related DLC saw player numbers quadruple to record highs.

Frontiers Of Pandora finally got the attention it deserved

It's a shame that some of those who worked on Frontiers of Pandora may now be out of a job just as they're celebrating a long-awaited victory for a game they released in 2023. There's no mention of Massive's Avatar getting any more DLC or a sequel, but Ubisoft's restructuring news only vaguely outlines what will make Massive more efficient.

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As well as ongoing work on The Division 3, development of an extraction shooter mode for The Division 2 will continue. It's clearly an attempt to capitalize on the success of Arc Raiders, but it's unlikely to dethrone the 2025 hit. The layoff email also refers to an “unannounced innovative technology project” related to the Snowdrop engine. Perhaps a glimmer of hope for Avatar fans, as this is the same engine that Massive used to develop Frontiers of Pandora.

News of the layoffs at Massive comes a week after Ubisoft announced it was closing its Halifax studio. In the era of video game releases, one publisher having two rounds within two weeks of the new year may be a new, incredibly grim record.