Ubisoft’s headcount decreased by 1,700 people to reach its highest level of net bookings on record.

Ubisoft’s financial results for the 2023-2024 financial year have arrived (along with a trailer revealing Shadows of Assassin’s Creedset in feudal Japan, scheduled for release this fall), and they are filled with good news for society.

Thanks to the Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Assassin’s Creed series, the company saw a 33.5% increase in net bookings, a decrease of 2.3 billion euros (approximately $2.5 billion) for the whole year.

Its full-year IFRS operating profit amounts to 313 million euros.

This titanic number constitutes a new record for Ubisoft. The company also reported a slight increase in “unique active users” compared to last year on console and PC. This number increased by 4 percent to a total of 138 million unique active users.

This success is rather impressive considering that Ubisoft’s release slate for the last year has been a bit thinner than usual. In late 2023, the company released Assassin’s Creed Mirage And Avatar: Pandora’s Borders. The long delay Skull bones finally launched in February 2024.

For comparison, in 2024 it will launch XDefiant, the outlaws of Star Wars, And Shadows of Assassin’s Creed, which could significantly contribute to its 2024-2025 targets of “solid growth in net bookings” and “slight increase in non-IFRS operating profit”. These games fit perfectly into Ubisoft’s plans to strategically focus on open-world adventure and games-as-a-service (GaaS) titles.

But there’s a frustrating side to Ubisoft’s success: The path to reaching those numbers was paved in part by layoffs and a hiring crunch, resulting in a drop in the total workforce of 1,700 workers.

Ubisoft reduced its costs by 150 million euros in 2024

Ubisoft said in its report that through “strict recruitment controls, organizational simplification as well as targeted restructuring”, it managed to reduce the company’s overall workforce by 1,700 people. This effort enabled it to achieve 150 million euros in annual cost reductions. It targets 200 million euros in cost reductions by 2026.

In a bitter twist, Ubisoft presented its layoff statistics by stating that employee retention “continued to improve” during the same layoff period.

This retention may be driven by improved morale and affinity for the company. It may also be because workers keep their jobs to survive, like Ubisoft and its competitors lay off thousands of workers.

Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Ubisoft had laid off 1,700 workers since 2022. This was inaccurate, as the company actually reported a decrease in its total workforce of 1,700 since 2022. This article was updated in result.