Key Takeaways
- Ubisoft has announced the closure of Finnish studio RedLynx, the developer behind the Trials series, affecting up to 52 employees.
- Ubisoft Singapore is also hit with 70 layoffs, despite the massive commercial success of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced earlier this year.
- RedLynx was founded in 2000 and acquired by Ubisoft in 2011 — it had reportedly not been assigned to any active project at the time of the closure decision.
- This is not RedLynx’s first round of cuts — over 60 staff were already laid off in October 2025 when the studio was pivoted toward mobile development.
- The closure adds to a brutal 2026 for Ubisoft, which has already shuttered Ubisoft Winnipeg, Ubisoft Belgrade, and Ubisoft Halifax this year.
- Both actions were confirmed on October 14, 2026, and bring the total jobs impacted across both studios to over 120.
Well, it’s happened again. Ubisoft just can’t seem to stop making headlines for the wrong reasons in 2026, and their latest moves have the gaming community rightfully angry. The publisher has confirmed that RedLynx — the Finnish studio behind the beloved Trials franchise — is being shut down, while Ubisoft Singapore is losing 70 positions, despite being the studio that just delivered one of Ubisoft’s biggest commercial wins in years.
Both announcements landed on October 14, 2026, bringing the total impact to over 120 jobs across two studios. At this point, Ubisoft’s 2026 is shaping up to be one of the worst years any major publisher has had in recent memory — and there’s still more year left to go.
RedLynx Is Being Shut Down After 25 Years
RedLynx is a name that deserves a proper sendoff. The Finnish studio was founded all the way back in the year 2000 in Helsinki, and built one of the most underrated franchises in gaming history. If you spent any time on Xbox 360 in the late 2000s, you almost certainly played Trials HD — the game that made the studio famous and proved that a physics-based bike game could be genuinely addictive. That was followed up by Trials Evolution, Trials Fusion, Trials Rising, and various other projects, all keeping the franchise alive and respected.
Ubisoft acquired RedLynx back in 2011, and for a while things seemed fine. But the cracks started showing. The last mainline Trials entry was Trials Rising back in 2019, and after that the studio largely moved into a support role on other Ubisoft titles. More recently, they were also working on mobile games — including South Park: Phone Destroyer and the 2023 release Gwen’s Getaway.
Things got rough in October 2025 when Ubisoft already laid off more than half of RedLynx’s workforce and attempted to pivot the remaining team toward mobile development. Now, just a year later, Ubisoft has taken it all the way and proposed a full closure. The stated reason? The studio wasn’t actively working on any new project at the time of the decision, making it difficult for Ubisoft to justify keeping it open in any form.
Because the studio is based in Finland, the closure isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. Finnish labor law requires a mandatory “change negotiation” process — meaning Ubisoft has to consult with employees before any closure is finalized. The proposal could still technically be altered or modified during negotiations, though most observers consider the outcome a foregone conclusion. Up to 52 positions are expected to be affected when all is said and done.
It’s worth noting that as recently as a year ago, Ubisoft had reportedly claimed there were two unannounced projects in development at RedLynx. What happened to those games — whether they were canceled entirely or quietly transferred to another studio — is still unclear.
Ubisoft Singapore Loses 70 Jobs Despite Black Flag Resynced’s Success
Here’s where things get genuinely hard to stomach. Ubisoft Singapore is the studio that led development on Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the remake of the 2013 pirate classic that launched in July 2026 and absolutely delivered. The game sold over two million copies in a single day, crossed three million copies within a week, and reportedly hit its annual sales targets in just two weeks. On Steam, it peaked at 100,000 concurrent players — a series record.
Ubisoft finally had a genuine win on their hands after a rough stretch, and the team in Singapore deserved every bit of the credit. Now, three months after that launch, 70 of them are losing their jobs.
Ubisoft’s official explanation is that the layoffs are intended to “align the studio with upcoming production needs.” In plain English: the bulk of Black Flag Resynced development is winding down, and the studio is being sized for its next project rather than its current one. Post-launch team reductions aren’t uncommon in the industry — but 70 positions at a studio that just delivered a massive hit feels like a gut punch regardless of the business logic behind it.
Ubisoft did clarify that Singapore is not being closed and “remains an important part of Ubisoft’s global production organization.” So the studio lives on, just significantly smaller. This also isn’t the first time the Singapore team has been hit after a successful launch — Ubisoft Barcelona, which served as a support studio on Black Flag Resynced, also had a third of its headcount cut not long after the game released.
Ubisoft’s 2026: A Year of Closures and Layoffs
To understand the scale of what’s happening, you need to look at the full picture of Ubisoft’s 2026. The company kicked off the year in January with layoffs at Star Wars Outlaws developer Massive Entertainment, then closed Ubisoft Halifax — a studio that had just unionized — shortly after. In June came the closure of both Ubisoft Winnipeg and Ubisoft Belgrade, plus layoffs in Barcelona and San Francisco. CEO Yves Guillemot even described the financial year ending March 2026 as “one of decisive action” — which is corporate-speak for a year of painful, ongoing cuts.
Now in October, RedLynx and Ubisoft Singapore are the latest casualties. All of this is part of a broader restructuring that has already impacted hundreds of developers across Ubisoft’s global network. The company has been under severe financial pressure, with its share price cratering from over €80 in 2021 down to just a few euros at various points this year — a collapse that’s made every studio cost a target.
For fans still keeping hope alive, Rayman Legends Retold is still on track for a December 3 release, alongside a free copy of Rayman Origins: Enhanced Edition — one of the few genuinely bright spots left on Ubisoft’s 2026 calendar.
The Legacy of RedLynx and What Gets Lost
Whatever happens next at Ubisoft, it’s worth pausing to appreciate what RedLynx actually built. The Trials series was something genuinely special — deceptively simple on the surface, mechanically deep once it had its hooks in you. Trials HD on Xbox 360 is still regarded by many as one of the best Xbox Live Arcade releases ever made, and Trials Evolution expanded on it brilliantly. Games like that stick with people.
The original creator of Trials, Antti Ilvessuo, had actually already left RedLynx years before the closure and has since founded a new studio working on something completely different. So the creative spirit behind Trials may live on elsewhere, but the studio itself — and 25 years of history — is being shut down.
For the developers losing their jobs today, and for everyone who spent hours grinding those tracks trying to nail a flawless run — this one hurts. And given how many indie studios are quietly building genuinely great games with tiny teams, it makes you wonder what else the industry is losing every time a studio with this much history closes its doors.
At the time of writing, Ubisoft has not announced any plans to continue the Trials franchise under another team or studio.
