Ubisoft has confirmed that 12 staff at its Reflections studio in Newcastle, England, have been made redundant and a further seven will not have their contracts renewed.

Ubisoft Reflections is currently working on Driver: San Francisco. A source at Reflections cited by website Eurogamer claims that the sluggish development of the franchise reboot is to blame.

According to the source, “There have been delays with the project, and because of our delays, Ubisoft have had to change their plans for our studio. What that means exactly I'm not sure.

"Everyone is pretending that it hasn't happened," he continued. "Nobody has mentioned the people who have gone, and we haven't had any meetings about it. They have just said that for the time being, everyone who needs to be told has been told. 'For the time being' is worrying.

"People think that when we have finished this game we will all be told 'off you go now'."

Driver: San Francisco was recently delayed into the next financial year, between April 2011 and March 2012.