In mid-2023, after a planned $2 billion investment deal fell through, video game publisher Embrancer Group announced a restructuring that would take the better part of a year to complete. Today, as part of its quarterly financial report, the company gave an update on those efforts, including a new total of how many of its employees it has laid off.
In the new financial report, Embracer stated that between July and December 2023, it had cut a total of 1,387 jobs. The company said that was about 8 percent of its total workforce. Those numbers may not include the layoffs at some of Embracer's development studios so far in 2024, including at Lost Boys Interactive, Black Forest Games, and Eidos Montreal, which also reportedly resulted in the cancelation of a new Deus Ex game.
Indeed, Embracer's new financial reports show that it currently has 124 unannounced games in development in its external and internal studios. That's well below the 153 unannounced games that it said were in development in June 2023.
The good news is that it appears the restructuring efforts will come to an end in the near future. The bad news is that we can still expect to hear about more cuts from Embracer, as the company indicated that it "still has a few larger structured divestment processes ongoing."
Since the cutbacks began in 2023, Embracer shut down two game developers entirely: Volition and Free Radical Design. A number of Volition team members have since launched a new studio, Shapeshifter Games, and are currently helping to support developer InXile Entertainment on their upcoming Xbox game Clockwork Revolution.
Other Embracer Group studios are still around but got hit with big layoffs in the last several months, including 3D Realms, Beamdog, and Crystal Dynamics. There have also been unconfirmed reports that Embracer is trying to sell off Gearbox Entertainment.
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