Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon have a new home. Ubisoft has expanded the remit of Swedish studio Massive Entertainment — the team behind The Division series, Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora — turning it into a second major pillar of the company that now governs two of its biggest Tom Clancy brands.
As part of Ubisoft’s most recent reorganisation, the company’s Creative House 2 cluster of studios has been folded under the expanded Massive Entertainment brand, unifying teams across Sweden, Paris, Toronto and Montréal. The move makes Massive the head of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, and the company revealed the studio is also working on a brand new original game called March of Giants — though nothing beyond its name has been announced.
“One Identity” for the Clancy Universe
“The Massive Entertainment brand builds on a nearly three-decade legacy established in Sweden through its games and technology, earning the trust of players and recognition from industry peers alike,” Massive said in a press release. Christoph Hartmann, who became general manager of Creative House 2 earlier this year, now leads the expanded entity: “Bringing our teams together under one identity gives us the opportunity to combine the creative energy and expertise across Montréal, Paris, Sweden and Toronto to shape the next generation of these iconic franchises, create new games and IPs, and push our craft and technology forward.”
The reshuffle makes Massive Entertainment the second multi-franchise-leading subsidiary inside Ubisoft, after the publisher earlier formed Vantage Studios — the unit backed by a €1.16 billion Tencent investment that oversees Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six. KitGuru also notes that the Splinter Cell Remake appears to still be early in development: fresh job listings show Ubisoft is still filling key leadership roles for the project.
A Restructuring Marked by Layoffs
The reorganisation continues a painful year for Ubisoft. In January, the company closed its Halifax and Stockholm studios and laid off staff at Ubisoft Abu Dhabi, Redlynx — and even Massive Entertainment itself. In March, Ghost Recon studio Red Storm Entertainment reportedly lost 105 staff and was relegated to a support studio. In June, Ubisoft reportedly shuttered its Winnipeg and Belgrade studios and cut staff at Ubisoft Barcelona, amounting to 380 layoffs.