LogInYet another victim of the company's restructuring campaign.
Image Credit: Eidos Montreal
Less than one full month into 2024, it is now evident that the massive layoffs that impacted the tech and game development industries over the past year are persisting and, unfortunately, intensifying with every passing week.
The latest example of this horrible trend is the developer of the Deus Ex series, Eidos Montréal, which lost 97 employees as part of Embracer Group's ongoing restructuring campaign. For those unaware, the former was purchased by the latter back in 2022, alongside such developers as Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix Montréal. Last year, Embracer announced its plans to restructure, downsize, and shut down some of its development teams to cut costs, with multiple studios falling victim to this campaign in 2023 and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands co-developer Lost Boys Interactive losing a "sizable portion" of its workforce earlier this month.
"For the last 17 years, our teams at Eidos have worked on some of the most beloved brands in the industry, combining deep storytelling and innovation into unique games. We have created memorable multi-awarded experiences that we are proud of and we know our team members have put their heart and soul in all of them," reads the studio's official statement. "The global economic context, the challenges of our industry, and the comprehensive restructuring announced by Embracer have finally impacted our studio. The difficult decision has been made to let go 97 people from development teams, administration, and support services. We are working to support all impacted personnel through this transition. These very talented, highly experienced people are entering the employment market, and we want them to find their next projects and are helping to do so."
As a consequence of the studio losing approximately 20% of its entire staff, its new Deus Ex game, which purportedly had been in production for nearly two years, has been canceled. As per Bloomberg's report based on anonymous sources, the unannounced Deus Ex game was expected to enter full production later this year but is now discontinued due to layoffs. The remaining members of the studio will now shift their focus to developing an "original franchise", as outlined in the report.
Other companies that experienced layoffs in 2024 include Microsoft, with 1,900 developers affected, followed by Unity with 1,800, Riot with 530, Twitch with 500, and over a couple of dozen others, with the list growing day after day. Sadly, it seems more and more that such firings have already become a new norm in the industry, with many no longer asking, "When will it stop?" but rather, "Who is going to be next?"
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