Ubisoft Cuts 70 Roles at Skull and Bones Studio as RedLynx Faces Closure

Ubisoft's continuing restructuring has reached two more established development teams: Ubisoft Singapore, the studio behind Skull and Bones, is set to lose 70 employees, while Finnish developer RedLynx, best known for the Trials series, is being closed. The changes affect teams with very different histories inside Ubisoft, but both reflect the publisher's broader effort to reduce costs and operate with a smaller, more selective production footprint.

Up to 52 employees are expected to lose their jobs as part of the RedLynx closure. Ubisoft Singapore, meanwhile, will cut 70 roles. Ubisoft has emphasized that its Singapore operation remains an important part of its worldwide production organization despite the reduction. The 70 positions reportedly account for roughly one-fifth of the studio's total headcount, suggesting that approximately 280 employees will remain after the cuts.

For the people affected, the news is another painful example of how corporate reorganization can reshape game development teams regardless of their experience, past releases, or place in a company's history. For players, the closure of RedLynx is particularly significant because the studio was once closely associated with one of the most distinctive arcade racing series of its era.

Ubisoft Singapore remains active after major staffing reduction

Ubisoft Singapore has spent years as a major contributor within the publisher's international development network. Its most visible recent project is Skull and Bones, the pirate-themed action game whose route to launch became one of the most prolonged and closely watched development stories in modern Ubisoft history.

For useful background on this topic, read Ocarina of Time Remake Preview: A Familiar Hyrule Rebuilt for Switch 2.

The game changed direction and endured numerous delays before finally launching in early 2024. At release, it arrived with a $70 price tag, a point publicly defended by Ubisoft chief executive Yves Guillemot, who described the project as a "quadruple-A game." The label drew considerable attention because it positioned Skull and Bones above the more familiar AAA terminology while also raising expectations around the size, scope, and longevity of the experience.

Despite its difficult path, Ubisoft has continued to support the game after release. Its Year 3 Season 2 update, Crimson Waters, launched in August. That ongoing seasonal activity makes the staff reduction especially notable: Ubisoft Singapore is not simply a team whose work has concluded, but a studio attached to a live game and embedded in a larger production structure.

Ubisoft's statement that Singapore remains important does not provide a detailed breakdown of which disciplines or projects are affected by the 70 eliminated roles. As a result, it is unclear how the cuts will alter the studio's day-to-day support for Skull and Bones, its capacity for future content, or its involvement in other Ubisoft projects. Staffing changes at a studio can affect many areas, from art and design to quality assurance, production, community work, and technical support, but no specific department-level information has been detailed here.

What is clear is the scale. A reduction equivalent to around 20% of a studio is substantial, even when the operation continues. Teams often depend on tightly coordinated specialties, and losing staff can mean difficult transitions for remaining employees as responsibilities are reassessed. Ubisoft's insistence that the studio retains a central role signals an intention to maintain its presence in Singapore, but the human impact of the layoffs remains considerable.

The end of a studio closely tied to Trials

RedLynx leaves behind a very different legacy. The Finnish studio became widely known for the Trials games, physics-driven side-scrolling motorcycle challenges built around balance, timing, momentum, and an irresistible loop of failure and retrying. The concept was straightforward on the surface: get a rider and bike to the end of an obstacle course. In practice, the series turned that premise into a demanding and highly replayable test of precision.

Before joining Ubisoft in 2011, RedLynx found substantial success with games including Trials 2, Trials HD, and Trials Evolution. The latter two, in particular, helped establish the studio as one of the standout developers of the Xbox Live Arcade period. That era gave smaller downloadable games an unusually visible place on console platforms, and Trials became a defining example of how a compact idea, refined to an exceptional degree, could command a large and enthusiastic audience.

The series was memorable not only because it was difficult, but because it made that difficulty social. A crash was often immediate, exaggerated, and funny; a successful run could come down to a tiny adjustment in throttle or body position. Local competitive multiplayer turned those repeated mistakes into a shared spectacle, as players attempted to survive the same seemingly impossible ramps, loops, and mechanical hazards.

That mixture of frustration and comedy was fundamental to the games' appeal. Players could spend a long time chasing a cleaner run or attempting to shave seconds from a record, only to be launched from a bike by a poorly timed landing. The games were challenging by design, yet their quick restarts made another attempt feel almost automatic.

RedLynx released Trials Rising in 2019. After that launch, the studio transitioned into a support role within Ubisoft rather than continuing as a dedicated lead developer on new Trials projects. The closure therefore ends not just a long-running studio story, but also a period in which one of the industry's best-known specialists in compact, skill-based arcade design was absorbed into the support structure of a much larger publisher.

A broader Ubisoft cost-cutting campaign

These changes come amid Ubisoft's wider attempt to reorganize into what it considers a leaner business focused on fewer games. In recent years, the publisher has closed multiple studios, canceled projects, and reduced staff across its operations. The latest decisions at RedLynx and Ubisoft Singapore fit into that longer-running pattern rather than standing as isolated events.

Large publishers frequently describe these measures in terms of efficiency, prioritization, and concentration of resources. Those terms can explain a business strategy, but they also obscure the personal reality behind such decisions. Studio closures end workplace communities built over years. Layoffs can disrupt careers, force relocations, and remove expertise that is difficult to replace. In the case of RedLynx, they also close a chapter for a team whose name remained meaningful to players who discovered its work through downloadable console games.

Ubisoft's current structure continues to rely on major studios with overlapping responsibilities. Most recently, Natalie Francis was appointed Studio Managing Director of Massive Entertainment, while Thomas Andrén became General Manager for Ubisoft's Creative Network. Massive Entertainment, based in Malmö, Sweden, is leading development on The Division 2 and The Division 3, operates development of the Snowdrop engine, and works on Ubisoft Connect.

Those leadership assignments illustrate the publisher's effort to clarify responsibilities across its internal network while pushing ahead with selected franchises, technology, and services. At the same time, the losses at RedLynx and Ubisoft Singapore underline the uncertainty that can accompany that restructuring. A company may continue investing in particular studios and projects while making deep reductions elsewhere.

What the news means for Ubisoft's catalog

There has been no announcement of a new Trials game alongside the RedLynx closure, and no indication that another Ubisoft studio will take over the series. That does not necessarily mean the franchise is permanently finished; publishers can retain intellectual property and revisit it later. However, without RedLynx, any future return would lack the original studio that defined much of the series' identity and mechanical expertise.

For Skull and Bones, Ubisoft's commitment to continuing seasonal support remains the most relevant immediate point. The launch of Crimson Waters in August demonstrates that the game's live-service plans were still moving forward. Yet the effect of the Singapore cuts on the game's future cadence or the studio's wider responsibilities has not been specified.

The industry has seen many examples of recognizable studios being closed after their staff had shifted toward support duties, co-development, or broader corporate work. That can make the news feel less visible than the cancellation of a major announced game, but it does not make the loss smaller. Support teams help ship, maintain, test, localize, and improve games across a publisher's portfolio. Their work is often essential even when their names are less prominent on marketing materials.

RedLynx's closure will be especially difficult for fans who remember the energy of Trials HD and Trials Evolution: games that could turn a lunch break, a couch multiplayer session, or a short evening challenge into a loud contest of skill and persistence. Ubisoft Singapore's reduction, meanwhile, is a reminder that even a studio attached to an actively supported release can face major workforce changes during a corporate reset.

As Ubisoft continues to reshape its global organization, the immediate facts are stark: up to 52 jobs are affected by the closure of RedLynx, and 70 roles are being removed at Ubisoft Singapore. The company's future plans may increasingly focus on a narrower range of projects, but the cost of that direction is being felt by developers and by the creative teams that helped build Ubisoft's catalog over many years.