Overview
- Insider Gaming reported that Ubisoft told the Montreal team its Animal Crossing–style project, codenamed Alterra, was canceled and sent staff home for the day with no immediate layoffs.
- Ubisoft declined to name the project when asked by outlets and instead issued a broad statement saying it discontinues games that no longer align with strategy, quality goals, or long-term market potential.
- Employees who worked on Alterra were put on availability or reassigned to other teams inside Ubisoft, while the status of external support studios that contributed remains unclear.
- Alterra was an unannounced social-sim with voxel-style building akin to Minecraft, NPCs called Matterlings, and multiple biomes, led at Ubisoft Montréal by creative director Patrick Redding and producer Fabien Lhéraud.
- The reported cancellation comes during a wider restructuring that has included other game shutdowns, studio closures in Stockholm and Halifax, layoffs at Red Storm and Toronto, and union actions in response to cutbacks.