The authors of Star Wars Outlaws and The Division were laid off

Oct 29, 2025

News of Massive Entertainment's "voluntary career transition program" has gone viral, but behind the elegant language there's more to the story than just a boring restructuring. If you dig deeper, it becomes obvious: this is nothing more than the consequences of the Star Wars Outlaws fiasco and another reminder of Ubisoft's deep economic zigzags.

Let's figure out what's really behind this mysterious newspeak - maybe it's just a plan to create a new cult in the gaming industry?

Optimization of production: Outlaws failure as the real reason for the “transition”

Dry newsabout the “reorganization” was silent about the main thing - the catalyst. We now know that it was the commercial failure of Star Wars Outlaws. The game did not reach its target figures, and JP Morgan analysts lowered their sales forecast by almost 25% - from 7.5 to 5.5 million copies.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot even tried to blame the Star Wars brand itself, but the truth turned out to be more prosaic: poor marketing and technical problems at the start. And now, as often happens, ordinary developers are paying for management’s failed decisions and are being asked to “voluntarily” leave the company.

Voluntarism is slavery: What is hidden behind the “support program”

Official statements speak of a “comprehensive support package.” In fact, this is a classic “soft dismissal” scheme. The employees are essentially given an ultimatum: either you leave now with a small compensation, or in a few weeks we will forcefully fire you, but without it.

This is not a “career transition on your own terms,” as the press release puts it. This is a cynical attempt to reduce staff while avoiding the legal and reputational costs of mass layoffs.

Doublethink in action: Massive only remembers The Division

The studio's official statement now reads completely differently. It enthusiastically lists four projects in The Division franchise.At the same time, the text completely lacks references to Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora - the studio's two latest major releases.

This is a tacit admission that ambitious projects under foreign licenses have been de facto curtailed. The studio is going into survival mode, clinging to its only proven proprietary IP, even as players wryly ask, “Why would anyone need a million Division games?”

Thoughtcrime: The players already understood everything

The community's response clearly shows that corporate newspeak no longer works. Players are massively ridiculing Ubisoft's attempts to disguise the cuts, recalling how the PR department spent years assuring everyone that everything was fine with the Outlaws. Now reality has put everything in its place.

Conclusion: This is not a reorganization, this is agony

Diving deeper into the topic, we see that this is not a planned restructuring, but an emergency measure in response to the failure of the flagship project. Ubisoft is not “strengthening the roadmap”, but is desperately trying to cut costs, hiding behind nice words. And while the Ministry of Plenty reports about optimization, ordinary developers are packing their things.