The latest Embracer studio to suffer under the megacorp’s ongoing restructuring efforts are Eidos Montreal, with a new Deus Ex title two years into development reportedly cancelled and dozens of staff confirmed to be laid off.
Let’s Play Deus Ex: Happy Birthday, JC Denton!
Embracer’s latest butchery after close to 1,000 job cuts last year – likely to be a good deal over that number now – and the closure of veteran studios including Saints Row creators Volition and TimeSplitters devs Free Radical first broke via Bloomberg, citing sources “familiar with the moves”.
The report claims that the unannounced Deus Ex game had been in development for two years and was planned to enter production later in 2024. Eidos Monreal were reported to be working on a new Deus Ex to follow Human Revolution and 2016’s Mankind Divided – the last entry in the beloved series – back in late 2022, though the project was said to be in its “very very early” stages at the time.
Replacing Deus Ex as the studio’s focus will apparently be “an original franchise”. The studio’s most recent game was their delightfully fun action-adventure take on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, released in 2021.
Alongside the cancellation of the Deus Ex game, almost 100 staff will be laid off from across the Canadian studio. Eidos Montreal confirmed the cuts in a statement posted to Twitter/X, stating that 97 employees spanning development teams, administration and support services would be affected.
“The global economic context, the challenges of our industry and the comprehensive restructuring announced by Embracer have finally impacted our studio,” the statement reads. “As we navigate these difficult times, the well-being of our team is our priority and the continuous commitment to creating games that players will be able to enjoy in the nearby future.”
Embracer bought Eidos Montreal from Square Enix in 2022 as part of the same deal that included Tomb Raider makers Crystal Dynamics and the Hitman Go and Lara Craft Go studio formerly known as Square Enix Montréal, which was renamed Onoma weeks before it was closed in November 2022.
The job losses at Eidos Montreal make it the latest in an ongoing string of both Embracer-owned studios and games makers across the industry to suffer deep layoffs in recent months. Around 6,000 games workers are estimated to have lost their jobs this month alone, following hundreds of cuts at League of Legends developers Riot Games and streamer Twitch, plus almost two thousand losses across Microsoft and its studios.
