New business unit inherits the name of the Swedish studio, incorporates teams in Toronto, Montreal and Paris, will also work on "new original IP"
Image credit: Ubisoft News by Jon Hicks Editorial Director Published on Sept. 30, 2026, 7:20 p.m. Ubisoft has announced that its Creative House 2 business unit, which houses Tom Clancy's The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell alongside "new original IP including March of Giants", will henceforth be known as Massive Entertainment, adopting the 29-year-old brand of the Swedish studio that originated the Divison franchise. That original studio remains part of the Creative House that takes its name, along with Ubisoft Toronto and teams in Paris and Montreal.
The new Massive Entertainment will, like the other Creative Houses, have "clear responsibility for the development and long-term growth of its brands". The unit had originally been dedicated to "competitive and co-op shooters" prior to the acquisition of March of Giants from Amazon .
"Starting today, development teams responsible for these franchises in Montréal, Paris, Sweden, and Toronto will operate under the Massive Entertainment brand," the company said in a statement, "bringing together their creative and technology expertise to shape its future, grow these franchises and craft challenging experiences for dedicated player communities."
Massive Entertainment is lead by veteran executive Christoph Hartmann, who joined as General Manager in June having departed Amazon Game Studios. He previously founded and lead 2K Games. The firm announced last week that Natalie Francis was joining as studio manager of the Malmo office after holding senior roles at Avalanche Studios and DICE.
Massive was previously a standalone studio in Malmo, Sweden, launched in 1997 and acquired by Ubisoft in 2008 after it was sold off by Activision following its purchase of Vivendi. The studio previously made its name with Ground Control and World In Conflict, before delivering the Division franchise, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws. It developed the Snowdrop engine widely used across several Ubisoft titles, and was described as working on "an unannounced innovative tech project" when Ubisoft laid off staff at Massive and Ubisoft Stockholm in January.
"Massive Entertainment has always been defined by passion, ambition and incredible talent, and our focus now is on what comes next,” said Hartmann. “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 firm announced it would move to the Creative Houses structure in late 2025 and confirmed the details in January 2026 . The firm has now announced leaders for all except Creative House 4, following the confirmation of Julien Bares as General Manager of Houses 3 and 5 and Thomas A as GM of centralised production resource Creative Network.
The initial move to Creative Houses came alongside delays and cancellations of multiple games and what it described as a "final" round of cost-cutting following years of underperformance and a protracted restructuring that has seen the closure of studios in Belgrade, Halifax, Leamington, Stockholm and Winnipeg along with layoffs across its worldwide operations. The firm would not confir…