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New Deus Ex game in the works for two years reportedly cancelled, almost 100 staff laid off at Eidos MontrealEmbracer acquired the Human Revolution and Mankind Divided developers in 2022
Embracer acquired the Human Revolution and Mankind Divided developers in 2022
Image credit:Eidos Montreal
Image credit:Eidos Montreal
The latest Embracer studio to suffer under the megacorp’s ongoing restructuring efforts are Eidos Montreal, with a newDeus Extitle two years into development reportedly cancelled and dozens of staff confirmed to be laid off.
Let’s Play Deus Ex: Happy Birthday, JC Denton!Watch on YouTube
Let’s Play Deus Ex: Happy Birthday, JC Denton!
Embracer’s latest butchery afterclose to 1,000 job cuts last year- likely to be a good deal over that number now - and the closure of veteran studios includingSaints Row creators VolitionandTimeSplitters devs Free Radicalfirst broke viaBloomberg, citing sources “familiar with the moves”.
The report claims that the unannounced Deus Ex game had been in development for two years and was planned to enter production later in 2024. Eidos Monreal were reported to be working on a new Deus Ex to followHuman Revolutionand 2016’sMankind Divided- the last entry in the beloved series -back in late 2022, though the project was said to be in its “very very early” stages at the time.
Replacing Deus Ex as the studio’s focus will apparently be “an original franchise”. The studio’s most recent game was theirdelightfully funaction-adventure take onMarvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, released in 2021.
pic.twitter.com/L3Pq3V8OlL— Eidos-Montréal (@EidosMontreal)January 29, 2024
pic.twitter.com/L3Pq3V8OlL
Alongside the cancellation of the Deus Ex game, almost 100 staff will be laid off from across the Canadian studio. Eidos Montreal confirmed the cuts in a statement posted to Twitter/X, stating that 97 employees spanning development teams, administration and support services would be affected.
Embracerbought Eidos Montreal from Square Enix in 2022as part of thesame dealthat included Tomb Raider makers Crystal Dynamics and the Hitman Go and Lara Craft Go studio formerly known as Square Enix Montréal, which was renamed Onoma weeksbefore it was closed in November 2022.
The job losses at Eidos Montreal make it the latest in an ongoing string of both Embracer-owned studios and games makers across the industry to suffer deep layoffs in recent months. Around 6,000 games workers are estimated to have lost their jobs this month alone, followinghundreds of cuts at League of Legends developers Riot Gamesandstreamer Twitch, plus almosttwo thousand losses across Microsoft and its studios.
