It has not been smooth sailing for Embracer Group. We’ve seen the company pick up quite a few studios and IPs. Now, it seems the company has to cut down their costs significantly. For those unfamiliar, the company had spoken of its restructuring efforts last year, which came at some big losses. Today, it looks like another game was killed off, and a series of more layoffs. But this comes from a report and not anything official at the moment.
Deus Ex fans have been waiting for a new game to enter the marketplace. It’s been a little while since we’ve seen anything emerge, but a title was reportedly in development. According to Bloomberg, this game is no longer being worked on. Sources familiar with the project had alerted the publication that Embracer Group had killed off the game and also made a series of layoffs at Eidos. After spending two years working on the next installment of Deus Ex, the development studio was expected to enter production with the game project.
Now, the focus at Eidos is to bring out an original franchise. Just what that is remains a mystery, and it will likely be a long while before we see anything come out in terms of marketing. Again, this is not new, and it’s been a trend as of late. We’ve seen layoffs at 3D Realms, Slipgate Ironworks, Gearbox’s support studio Lost Boys, and even more recently, the threat of Piranha Bytes being completely shut down. That’s just a small highlight, and we’re hopeful this is the end of the ongoing trend of layoffs in the gaming industry.
As for Deus Ex fans, it seems you’ll be waiting a while longer for a new game installment. Currently, the last main installment release to hit the marketplace was 2016 Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Again, this is not official right now, as we’re still waiting to see if Embracer Group makes any statements. Bloomberg had also reached out for a comment but has yet to respond. In other news regarding layoffs, Microsoft was even in the headlines last week when it was unveiled that they have dropped over 1,900 jobs shortly after acquiring Activision Blizzard. So, things have not been incredibly stable in the gaming industry as we made our way out of the worldwide pandemic. But again, it’s hopeful that things are turning around.
