Jon Huffman is heartbroken over this week’s announcement that Ubisoft Halifax will be closing up shop after 10 years.
The lead programmer began working at the studio four years ago and, alongside colleagues, was one of the faces behind popular mobile games, like Assassin’s Creed Rebellion.
When staff were called into an impromptu meeting Wednesday morning to find the head of Ubisoft’s mobile division waiting for them, he said they knew something big was happening, Huffman said.
“Nobody saw it coming,” he told Global News one day after the meeting. “In fact, I don’t know that our studio management saw it coming. They were just as devastated as we were.”
Huffman has become one of two spokespeople for the staff since Ubisoft broke the news.
“Suddenly, you got people crying arm-in-arm. To go from the triumph of being recognized and certified as a union, to, less than four weeks later, finding out that our studio is being shut down? It’s heartbreaking.”
Employees at Ubisoft Halifax unionized in late December, forming the company’s first-ever North American union.
“Let me share a little bit of something with you, right? We voted to form our union last year in June, if I remember correctly.” Huffman said. “It was six months to the day that we got certified, and the reason it took so long is because the company was challenging the inclusion of some of our members.”
He described going through a lengthy process of interviews and hearings, which proved stressful to the staff in question.
“And suddenly, beginning of the week of December 18, we get the news that the company was dropping all of their challenges,” Huffman said. “So, bing, bang, boom — votes counted. We find out we have a successful union vote — 74 per cent of us came together and said ‘yes.’”
The employees joined CWA Canada local 30111, which represents workers at Bethesda Game Studios and the Montreal Gazette.
Originally, Huffman said staff viewed Ubisoft backing down as “one hell of an early Christmas present.”
“We were, to say the least, jubilant,” he recalled.
But that would all change the first week back to work after the holidays, when he said staff had the rug pulled out from under them.
“What are you supposed to do, aside from sit there reeling?” he asked.
Ubisoft said this week that the staff’s decision to unionize did not influence the greater company’s conclusion to close the studio, but Huffman has his doubts.
“The timing is questionable to say least,” he said.
In a statement made to Global News Thursday, Ubisoft PR manager Caroline Stelmach said, “Over the past 24 months, Ubisoft has undertaken company-wide actions to streamline operations, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. As part of this, Ubisoft has made the difficult decision to close its Halifax studio. Seventy-one positions will be affected.”
Adding, “We are committed to supporting all impacted team members during this transition with resources, including comprehensive severance packages and additional career assistance.”
In her email, Stelmach also provided context for the closure, citing the increasing competitiveness of the gaming industry, requiring the company “to focus on projects with the greatest potential for success.”
However, the Assassin’s Creed franchise, which the Halifax team worked extensively on, has seen success in recent years.
According to Ubisoft’s half-year fiscal update for 2025-26, revenue was up heading into year’s end, with the company reporting 20.3 per cent net booking gains compared to the first half of 2024-25.
“In a highly competitive market, Ubisoft delivered net bookings above guidance, on the back of stronger-than-expected partnerships that underscore the appeal and reach of our brands,” wrote Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in the company’s half-year report. “(…) The Assassin’s Creed franchise exceeded our expectations, confirming its positive momentum and ability to engage players over time.”
But regardless of which projects were viewed as top priority, Huffman said his team was adaptable and keen to work on anything.
“We were a very versatile team. We were able to pivot and tackle challenges across a variety of technologies and platforms. Most recently, we’ve had a lot of people working on a PC title. We prided ourselves on our flexibility, and we enjoyed new challenges.”
An overall snapshot of Ubisoft’s revenue over the past six fiscal years shows a series of financial dips and gains, many of which may be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the company reported IFRS 15 sales at 2,223.8 million euros, with net bookings up 46.1 per cent in 2020-2021, it also reported losses in 2024-25, with revenue dipping 17.5 per cent.
Ubisoft is also in debt around 1.15 billion euros, as of the end of September 2025, that it incurred over the years due to underperforming game titles, such as Skull and Bones and Star Wars Outlaws.
However, according to Huffman, the company isn’t in dire straits.
He said 2025 also saw the Assassin’s Creed franchise reach new heights, despite its high production cost.
“Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a phenomenal game, the major flagship that released in 2025. And it did quite well, right?” Huffman said. “To me, Ubisoft is not a failing company. It’s a company that is going through a transition. That’s all.”
Ubisoft was given substantial financial incentives to remain in Nova Scotia in order to help build and bolster a provincial gaming industry.
But that’s at risk of crumbling with their decision to shutter the Halifax studio.
“The tax credit that is received by media companies in Nova Scotia is very generous. And Ubisoft has taken advantage of that as long as we’ve been here, right?” Huffman said. “There’s a social contract that exists when a company goes and relies on the government to help subsidize their employees — and to take that and then cut and run is, frankly, insulting.”
According to the premier’s office, Ubisoft has earned $12,574,591 through Nova Scotia’s Digital Media Tax Credit since 2017. Credits that can only be claimed after qualifying jobs and investments are made.
As laid out in the most recent provincial public accounts report, Ubisoft also received $26,484 in grant money from the Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The video game developer also saw $47,791 and $25,445 in provincial money come their way in 2023-24 and 2022-2023, respectively.
In a statement, the premier’s office says, “The government is deeply concerned about the closure of Ubisoft’s Halifax studio and the impact on the 71 Nova Scotians who have lost their jobs,” adding, “This decision was made by the company — it was not a decision that required government approval.”
The government says Employment Nova Scotia has already reached out to the workers, and support is available through Nova Scotia Works to help individuals transition to new opportunities.
“The fact is, we can’t grow our economy solely through government investment. We also need the government to make sure that the people that do the work of building new industry, that build a thriving economy, are protected and looked after,” says Paul Wozney, MLA and labour critic for the NS NDP.
He says, following this loss in the local gaming industry, his party will be bringing forward legislation to protect workers’ rights in Nova Scotia.
“I don’t have any smoking gun evidence to say that this is union busting. But this is hardly the first time a multinational corporation with fiscal issues has closed a location under the auspices of fiscal struggle,” Wozney says.
“We certainly will be, again, bringing forward ideas and legislation in the session to come to challenge this government to step up and make that workers in Nova Scotia have the protections they deserve, including the right to unionize and seek representation.”
In the wake of Ubisoft’s decision close the location at Halifax’s Maritime Centre, Huffman said employees are left with limited options.
“First and foremost, myself and other organizing members of our union are working closely with CWA Canada to make sure that everything that is going on is above board, right?” He said. “Job searching is in my future, but the industry here in Halifax has shrunk a lot over the past two years. So, with 71 people being out of work all at once, it’ll be very difficult for our industry to absorb that.”
Huffman says while many on his team will have to consider relocating, the hardest part of the studio closure has been coming to terms with not working together moving forward.
“Ubisoft has had its ups and downs over the years (…) But Ubisoft Halifax was such a special place that there’s no way I can’t look back at it with pride,” Huffman says.
“We were a team before; we’re still a team now. And this act by Ubisoft is not going to change the way we feel about each other.”
