Embattled gaming firm Embracer Group has cancelled an in-development Deus Ex sport that Eidos-Montréal was engaged on, in line with a new report from Bloomberg. The untitled and unannounced RPG was reportedly in pre-production for 2 years and was set to “enter manufacturing later this 12 months,” an nameless supply advised Bloomberg. The final Deus Ex sport was 2016’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The cancellation comes not lengthy after the Swedish conglomerate snatched up a bunch of publishers and studios, didn’t safe a $2 billion deal, and subsequently laid off almost 5 % of its workforce—and in line with Bloomberg, extra layoffs could possibly be hitting Eidos within the wake of the Deus Ex sport cancellation.
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Embracer Group has spent the previous couple of years gobbling up studios just like the fattest hippopotamus in a sport of Hungry Hungry Hippos—in 2021, it turned Europe’s most respected online game developer after it introduced almost 30 takeovers inside a 12 months, rising from a relative unknown into an enormous monolith in a brief span of time.
It purchased Borderlands developer Gearbox in February 2021; Star Wars remaster firm Aspyr Media in April 2021; 3D Realms and Ghost Ship Video games in August 2021, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Sq. Enix Montréal in Could 2022; and the rights to The Lord of the Rings franchise in August 2022. Since then, the studio has been a poster baby for what occurs whenever you quickly develop, purchase up after which consolidate different firms, and in the end fail to safe a $2 billion partnership with Saudi Arabia’s public funding fund. In different phrases: late-stage capitalism.
Sq. Enix Montréal was briefly rebranded to “Onoma” earlier than being utterly shut down in November 2022. Saints Row studio Volition was closed in August 2023. Embracer introduced a “restructuring” in November of that very same 12 months, confirming that the corporate laid off about 5% of its workforce for the reason that starting of 2023 and seemingly cancelled 15 tasks, lots of which have been unannounced.
“For me, personally, it’s essential that the [restructuring program] is carried out with compassion, respect, and integrity,” Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors wrote in that November 2023 press launch. A submit from Eidos-Montréal’s official X/Twitter account confirmed 97 individuals have been laid off within the wake of this resolution.
