Former Ubisoft Barcelona devs launch Dark Ritual Studios
Former workers from Ubisoft Barcelona have established Dark Ritual Studios, a new indie game development studio founded approximately one month after the team staged a strike in protest against proposed layoffs. The studio was co-founded by Myles Kerwin, who previously served as an expert level designer at Ubisoft Barcelona and now serves as the studio’s game director.
Dark Ritual Studios operates with a stated mission of “creating immersive indie games.” Kerwin explained that his experience at Ubisoft demonstrated the difficulties of maintaining organizational agility within large companies. The team intends to remain deliberately small, allowing ideas to progress swiftly from discussion to implementation—a strategic choice directly shaped by their experience at the larger publisher.
The former Ubisoft Barcelona workers had contributed to Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced while employed at Ubisoft. Their departure to form Dark Ritual Studios represents a response to the industry tensions that prompted their strike, specifically the threat of layoffs and the desire to work independently. This move reflects a broader pattern in the game industry where talented developers leave major studios to pursue independent projects, seeking greater creative freedom and organizational autonomy away from corporate structures they found restrictive.