Summary
Embracer Group has reportedly canceled a newDeus Exgame amid layoffs at its studio Eidos Montreal. The lastDeus Exwas released in 2016, and it left the story open for a sequel, which Eidos Montreal studio has been developing until now.
Formerly known as THQ Nordic, the Embracer Group is a major publisher in the game industry. However, the company has been facing a huge crisis aftera $2 billion deal was lost by Embracer Group. Before the deal fell off, the company bought several new studios. However, the recent crisis made the publisher shut some of them down and cancel projects to cut costs.
Now, a yet unannouncedDeus Exsequel has been canceled,according to Bloomberg. The project spent two years in pre-production and was about to enter full production this year. The game would have been a sequel toDeus Ex: Mankind Divided, but it’s unclear whether it would have directly continued its story, as some previousrumors aboutDeus Expointed to a co-op game. Soon after the news of the cancelation broke out, Eidos Montreal officially confirmed that 97 of its employees were laid off. Now, it seems that the rest of the studio will start working on a new, original franchise which has also not been announced yet.
These cuts at Eidos Montreal have been the latest of several layoffs announced by Embracer Group in recent months. Last year, the company laid off employees in some of its studios, including 3D Realms, Slipgate Ironworks, and others. In some cases, full studios were shut down, such as Volition Games, which developed the latestSaints Row. This year, the trend continues. A few days ago, the publisher revealed it wouldlay off 50% of the employees of Black Forest Games, and a sizeable portion of Lost Boys Interactive. There are also rumors that theElexdeveloper Piranha Bytes will also be shut down by Embracer Group soon, although its future is not confirmed yet.
2024 Starts With Layoffs and Game Cancelations
The unfortunate layoffs and cancelations made by Embracer Group are part of a larger trend that is hitting the industry very hard in January. So far,Unity laid off around 1,800 employees, CI Games dismissed 10% of its entire staff, and Riot Games let 530 people go, for example. Another high-profile case is Microsoft, which cut 1,900 workers from its team after the Activision Blizzard acquisition, and canceled Blizzard’s survival gameOdyssey.
Deus Ex
Deus Ex is an RPG series that takes in a post apocalyptic future where several different organizations are fighting for world domination. The characters of the games have superpowers called augmentations, all of which have been artificially made. Gameplay varies between shooter, action and stealth modes. The outcome of the story usually depends on the in game choices characters make.
