Ubisoft has ended game development at the famed Red Storm studio as part of its global cost-cutting efforts, a move that will see 105 employees put out of work. Red Storm itself will remain open: A VGC report says it will operate going forward as an IT and Snowdrop engine support studio.
Red Storm was founded in 1996 by Tom Clancy (yes, that Tom Clancy), Doug Littlejohns, and software company Virtus Corporation, following the release of the sub sim Tom Clancy’s SSN in 1996. The studio stuck with the Tom Clancy angle through most of its history, creating the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon franchises and developing a number of lesser-known (but thematically similar) titles.
Recent years have been less kind to the studio, however. Red Storm’s last Tom Clancy game was the solid-but-unremarkable Future Soldier in 2012; it followed that up with Werewolves Within, Star Trek: Bridge Crew, and Assassin’s Creed Nexus, all VR games and none of which added up to much. A Splinter Cell VR game in development at Red Storm was cancelled in 2022, while The Division: Heartland, a free-to-play multiplayer shooter, met a similar fate in 2024.
Red Storm itself is presumably a victim of Ubisoft’s bigger problems, though. The publisher has struggled badly in recent years, and in January announced a major internal restructuring that included multiple game cancellations, along with layoffs and studio closures. That new structure will see Ubisoft divide its properties between five “creative houses,” with Tom Clancy games divvied up between them: Rainbow Six, along with Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, going to Vantage Studios, while Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, and The Division are now under the control of the as-yet-unamed Creative House 2.
Ubisoft was pretty brutal with its treatment of previous Assassin’s Creed leadership in this restructuring, despite the success of Shadows, so I can’t say I’m too surprised that it’s now showing any deep sentiment for a 30-year-old Tom Clancy studio here, either. Despite the effective end of Red Storm, a source within Ubisoft said the company remains committed to the Tom Clancy games, including The Division, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, and Splinter Cell.
