Ubisoft proposes closing Trials studio RedLynx and cuts 70 jobs in Singapore

Ubisoft said on October 14, 2026 that it has proposed closing RedLynx, the Finnish studio behind the Trials franchise, subject to a local change negotiation process, in a move that would affect up to 52 positions. On the same day the publisher confirmed that 70 positions have been impacted at Ubisoft Singapore, the team that served as lead developer on Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced. Both studios had been placed in the Creative Network, an internal grouping that provides central support to other Ubisoft teams, and both are now absorbing cuts the company presents as part of a wider effort to reduce costs and reshape how it makes games.

RedLynx has been part of Ubisoft since 2011, when the publisher acquired the Finnish studio following the breakout success of Trials 2 and Trials HD. The team shipped a run of Trials titles in the years that followed, culminating in Trials Rising in 2019, and then shifted into a support role. After cuts in 2025, RedLynx said it would specialise in small screens, with two unannounced mobile titles. GamesIndustry.biz understands the studio is not currently assigned to a project and has no sustainable standalone titles.

Ubisoft Singapore has a longer corporate history and a more complicated recent record. The studio was created in 2008 as a support team and eventually led Skull and Bones, the pirate game that shipped in 2024 after multiple delays. More recently, the Singapore team was the lead studio behind Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, a remaster of the 2013 pirate entry, and the 70 positions being cut represent roughly a fifth of its headcount.

The two announcements land in the middle of a sweeping reorganisation. Ubisoft has been rebuilding itself around six Creative Houses, with major franchises moving under the subsidiary Vantage Studios and the Ubisoft Massive label stretched to cover more brands. This year the company has already closed studios in Stockholm, Halifax, Winnipeg and Belgrade, cancelled six games, and laid off staff worldwide, all as part of a plan to cut about 200 million euros in annual costs by 2028.

Key Facts

GamesIndustry.biz reported on October 14, 2026 that Ubisoft proposed the loss of 52 roles in Finland at RedLynx and 70 roles at Ubisoft Singapore, describing the cuts as the latest in the firm's restructuring into Creative Houses. The outlet noted that both studios had been placed in the Creative Network and that RedLynx has no sustainable standalone titles.

Ubisoft's statement on the day read: "Today, we informed our teams of a proposal to close RedLynx in Finland, subject to the local change negotiation process, which would affect up to 52 positions. At Ubisoft Singapore, 70 positions have been impacted to align the studio with upcoming production needs. The studio remains an important part of Ubisoft's global production organization." The company added that it deeply values the contributions of both teams, recognises the impact on colleagues, and is committed to supporting them with care and respect.

Eurogamer reported on October 14, 2026 that Ubisoft is closing RedLynx and downsizing the Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced team in Singapore. The outlet noted that Ubisoft did not expand on its reasons for closing RedLynx, but observed that the studio's last major standalone release was Trials Rising in 2019, suggesting it had played more of a support role since then. Eurogamer also described how Ubisoft has been shuffling major franchises under the Vantage subsidiary and stretching the Ubisoft Massive label to cover more brands.

The Verge reported on October 14, 2026 that Ubisoft is shutting down a studio and laying off Assassin's Creed staff. The Verge noted that Ubisoft said in July that Black Flag Resynced had sold 3.5 million copies, exceeding annual expectations within its first 14 days. That figure sits awkwardly beside the Singapore cuts, because it confirms the project performed well commercially even as its lead studio loses about a fifth of its people.

GAMES.GG reported on October 14, 2026 that RedLynx faces closure after 15 years under Ubisoft. The outlet noted that a Switch 2 version of Black Flag Resynced is reportedly in the pipeline, and that 70 positions is a substantial cut even though strong sales do not automatically protect headcount once a project ships. Tero Virtala, a former RedLynx chief executive, later led Remedy Entertainment before leaving, and Trials creator Antti Ilvessuo founded the studio Channel 37.

Analysis

The bigger picture here is that Ubisoft's cost cutting has moved past the periphery and into studios with recognisable franchise histories. RedLynx is not an anonymous outsourcing shop: it built Trials into a series strong enough that Ubisoft bought the studio in 2011, and it kept shipping entries for eight more years. What it lost was a pipeline. Once Trials Rising arrived in 2019 and no successor followed, the studio drifted into support work, and support work is what a publisher trims first when it reorganises around a smaller number of large franchises.

The Singapore decision is harder to justify on the same logic. Black Flag Resynced sold 3.5 million copies within 14 days, a result Ubisoft itself described in July as exceeding annual expectations. Cutting about a fifth of the team that built it suggests the company is sizing studios for what comes next rather than rewarding what just shipped. That is a defensible way to run a business, but it means commercial success offers little protection to the people who delivered it.

Ubisoft's own wording points in that direction. The statement says the Singapore reductions align the studio with upcoming production needs and insists the studio remains important to the global production organisation, which is a careful way of saying it survives but shrinks. The RedLynx language is blunter: a proposal to close, subject to local negotiation, which places the burden of the decision on a consultation process rather than on a change of plan.

The judgement to draw is that Ubisoft is trading breadth for depth. Six Creative Houses and a consolidated Vantage structure can be efficient, and the 200 million euro cost target by 2028 explains the urgency, but the company is also giving up the smaller teams that once generated surprise hits. RedLynx came to Ubisoft as exactly that kind of surprise, which makes its proposed closure an unusually clear statement about what the new structure values.

Why It Matters

For Finland, the loss is as much symbolic as practical. RedLynx was one of the better known names in a Nordic development scene that has produced a disproportionate share of successful studios, and a 15 year relationship with a major publisher ending in a closure proposal removes both jobs and institutional memory. For Singapore, the read is different: the studio stays open, but losing about a fifth of the staff reshapes a team the local industry has long treated as a flagship employer.

For players, the immediate casualty is the Trials brand. The last entry was Trials Rising in 2019, and the mobile plans the studio announced after the 2025 cuts never produced a released game. There is no obvious path back for the series under a publisher concentrating resources behind a smaller set of franchises.

The wider lesson concerns timing. Publishers cut hardest after a project ships, when a studio's next assignment is unresolved, which is the moment when staff have the least leverage and strong sales figures offer the least protection. The pattern here, a remaster that sold 3.5 million copies followed by cuts at its lead studio, will be read closely by developers everywhere.

Next Up

The next concrete step is the local change negotiation process in Finland, which will determine whether the closure proposal becomes final and how the up to 52 affected positions are handled. Ubisoft has not said what happens to the two unannounced mobile titles RedLynx had been working on, and it has given no timeline for the Singapore reductions beyond confirming that 70 positions have been impacted.

Further out, attention turns to the reported Switch 2 version of Black Flag Resynced, to the continued growth of Vantage Studios and the Ubisoft Massive label, and to whether the target of about 200 million euros in annual savings by 2028 is reached through more studio closures. Former RedLynx figures have moved on: Antti Ilvessuo's Channel 37 is preparing a spring 2027 1.0 release for The Last Caretaker on PC and Xbox.