The time has ended. hug group has grown into one of the largest video game companies in the world in recent years; bought, for example, THQ Nordic, Plaion, Saber Interactive, Gearbox Software, Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, Prague’s Warhorse Studios with Kingdom Come or the rights to The Lord of the Rings. However, last month shares of the Swedish company fell by more than 40% after the failure of an indefinite collaboration worth two billion dollars.
Now Embracer Group Announces Restructuring Program to Create a More Lean, Stronger, Focused and Self-Sustaining Business. CEO Lars Vingefors writes in an open letter about the transition from the current intensive investment regime to a high yield business. However, this is indispensable big layoffs, closure of some development studies (some studios will be sold) cancellation of upcoming projects.
We do not know which teams will be affected by the restructuring. Wingefors did not even mention how many of the more than 17,000 employees would be laid off. However, the cancellation of projects should mainly concern games that are in the early stages of development. This is almost exclusively about those that have not yet been announced.. All major announced games should be released as scheduled.
The restructuring is divided into three stages, which will last until March 2024. The first phase began immediately and is aimed primarily at reducing costs across the group. The next phase also starts immediately and will require further analysis to determine specific measures. The last stage is focused on internal consolidation, further use of resources and great synergy within the whole group.
Embracer Group intends to limit the release of third-party games (now it’s Payday 3, for example) and focus more on their brands and increase external funding for big-budget games.
He is due to exit the Embracer Group in the coming months and next year. Remainder 2, Warhammer 40,000 Space Marines 2, payday 3, Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged, Arizona Sunshine 2, Alone in the dark or Homeworld 3.
“The departure of talented team members is painful. Our people are the essence of the company.” the CEO writes, saying that he understands the concerns of employees about their situation, but does not yet know the answers to all questions. Where possible, the company will try to transfer employees to other positions in other projects.
The only thing that’s certain is that the restructuring does not concern the British studio Crystal Dynamicsor upcoming projects in the form of the Tomb Raider event (published by Amazon Games) and collaboration on Microsoft’s Perfect Dark.
In February of this year, the Embracer Group boasted that prepares 94 games, of which 58 have not yet been announced. Among them were to be several games from the world of Middle-earth, which were supposed to be released before March 31, 2024. In addition to the long-awaited sequel to the medieval role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance from Dan Wavre from Warhorse Studios. At this time, we do not know how things are with these and other games. However, they are supposed to have been in development for several years, so the cancellation probably shouldn’t affect them.
It was recently released by Embracer. Dead Island 2. Crazy zombie action is one of the company’s biggest successes. On the contrary, much more was expected from last year’s Saints Row open-world event.
I will not list here all the studios owned by the Embracer Group. But here it should be said that there are 131 in-house studios with more than 15,000 employees and located in more than 40 countries around the world. Read more on Wikipedia.
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— Crystal Dynamics (@CrystalDynamics) June 13, 2023
Source :Indian TV
