Embracer cancels new Deus Ex game, lays off Eidos developers

UPDATE: EIdos-Montreal has confirmed the news, and says it will lay off 97 people.

Swedish decentralized entrepreneurs at the Embracer Group have cancelled a new Deus Ex game and laid off workers at Eidos Montreal, sources tell Bloomberg's Jason Schreier.

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In 2022, The Embracer Group made one of the best deals in gaming. The firm paid $300 million to acquire Square Enix's entire Western games division, which included highly-lauded studios Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics. Now as worldwide interest rates climb and affect conversion rates, fear has triggered sizable cost-cutting measures at big decentralized foreign empires like Embracer Group.

These cost cuts have already lead to layoffs, game cancellations, and even studio closures at Embracer, including the outright closure of Saints Row developer Volition. Now the financial savings program looms over Embracer's latest buys as layoffs and a full game cancellation hits Eidos Montreal.

Sources tell Bloomberg that Embracer has cancelled a new Deus Ex game that Eidos Montreal had been working on for two years. The Deus Ex project had been confirmed in 2022 after Embracer's acquisition. The project was set to enter full production sometime in 2024.

Although Square Enix had been disappointed by Deus Ex Mankind Divided's sales, the Deus Ex remake duology has done exceptionally well insofar as sales. Both Deus Ex games Human Revolution and Mankind Divided had sold a combined 12 million units as of December 2021, making the sci-fi series a bonafide hit franchise.

Reports indicate that Eidos Montreal will instead focus on a new all-original IP instead of Deus Ex, but details are scarce.

An Embracer earnings call from February 2023 sheds light on the original pipeline of content for Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics, both of which form their own operating unit within The Embracer Group. According to Embracer's Lars Wingefors, both Eidos and Crystal Dynamics had previously been expected to deliver 5 AAA projects by 2028.