Assassin's Creed Nexus VR key art, the last game from Ubisoft studio Red Storm Entertainment
Image: Ubisoft

One of the few large publishers still making ambitious VR games has stepped back further. Ubisoft is ending game development at Red Storm Entertainment, the North Carolina studio that made Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, and 105 jobs are affected, according to GamesIndustry.biz, which cited a Ubisoft source.

The studio is not closing outright. Staff who remain will reportedly move into a support role, working on Ubisoft’s in-house Snowdrop engine and handling functions such as global IT. But all game development roles are expected to be made redundant, which means Red Storm will no longer make games of its own. Ubisoft has not published a detailed public statement about the studio.

A studio with deep roots

Red Storm was founded in 1996 and built its name on early Tom Clancy games. It developed the original Rainbow Six and the first Ghost Recon, along with many sequels through the 2000s. Its last Ghost Recon game was Future Soldier in 2012.

In the following decade, Red Storm became one of the most visible VR teams at a major publisher. It made the social deduction game Werewolves Within in 2016 and Star Trek: Bridge Crew in 2017, which put players on the bridge of a starship with friends. Both were early examples of multiplayer VR built around talking and cooperating rather than shooting, and both arrived when publishers were still testing whether headsets could support big licensed games. Red Storm was one of the teams that tried to answer that question. A Splinter Cell VR project was cancelled in 2022, and the free-to-play The Division Heartland was cancelled in 2024 after public testing.

Its last shipped game was Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, released on Meta Quest in November 2023. The game let players take on the roles of Ezio, Kassandra and Connor, and was widely praised. UploadVR, which named it its Quest Game of the Year for 2023, called it the most fun it had ever had with the series.

What happened to Nexus VR

Critical praise did not translate into the sales Ubisoft wanted. On an earnings call in February 2024, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said the company had been “a bit disappointed” with what it achieved in VR with the game, adding that it “did okay” but that Ubisoft had expected more. He said Ubisoft would not increase its VR investment until the market grows, as Video Games Chronicle reported.

Two years later, that caution has gone further. With Red Storm out of game development, Ubisoft no longer has a dedicated VR studio of this scale making new games.

Part of a wider reset

The decision is part of a broader restructuring at Ubisoft, which has been trying to cut more than €200 million in fixed costs. In January, the company reorganised into five “creative houses” and announced cancelled and delayed projects alongside studio closures. Red Storm’s Tom Clancy brands, including Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell and The Division, fall under one of those houses. Game Informer reported that the new structure is meant to focus the company on open world games and live service titles.

Red Storm had already been through smaller rounds of cuts in 2024 and 2025. According to reports, affected staff will receive severance and support. Ubisoft has not said how large the remaining support team will be.

A tough moment for VR studios

The news lands in a difficult stretch for VR game development. In January, Meta closed three of its own VR studios, Twisted Pixel, Armature and Sanzaru Games, and cut staff at Camouflaj, the maker of Batman: Arkham Shadow. Earlier this month, UK developer nDreams said it would close two studios. At GDC last week, Meta argued that the Quest audience hit a record in 2025, but it also said store revenue was only slightly up, and it is now relying on outside studios to make the games that bring players in.

That puts more weight on independent developers and smaller teams. Many of the biggest Quest hits of the past year, such as UG, Hard Bullet and The Thrill of the Fight 2, came from small studios rather than large publishers. Big budget, licensed VR games like Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR and Batman: Arkham Shadow were among the platform’s most polished releases, and both of the studios behind them have now been cut back sharply.

Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR remains available on the Meta Quest store, and Ubisoft has not announced any change to its availability. Ubisoft has not said whether it plans any further VR projects.

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