Embracer-owned Eidos-Montréal reportedly hit with more layoffs

Eidos-Montréal, the Embracer-owned studio behind Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, has allegedly been hit with yet more layoffs, following earlier cuts in March.

Insider Gaming reports that the company has laid off more than a dozen staff in recent weeks, with the threat of further redundancies hanging over workers still at the studio.

“I was hit by the recent Eidos layoffs, so I’m looking for a new design leadership role and would appreciate your support,” one affected member of staff posted to LinkedIn, as spotted by Game Developer.

Per another post on LinkedIn from someone still at Eidos-Montréal, layoffs appear to have hit the studio’s design, production, writing, 3D art, concept art, and animation teams.

Employees at Eidos-Montréal also told Insider Gaming that most projects at the company had been cancelled. The studio’s focus for the time being is co-development work, such as the contributions it has been making to Microsoft’s Grounded 2 and Fable.

Eidos-Montréal is best known for its work on the more recent entries in the Deux Ex franchise, as well as Shadow of the Tomb Raider and 2021’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to parent company Embracer for comment.

This is the second round of layoffs that Eidos-Montréal has enacted in the last year. In March, 75 staff were let go, while 2024 kicked off with 97 workers at the studio being made redundant.

Embracer Group acquired Eidos-Montréal when it snapped up Square Enix’s Western studios, including Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix Montréal, for $300 million back in 2022.

Since then, Embracer has experienced a financial downturn after a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group failed to materialise. As a result, the company enacted a “restructuring program” that saw the Swedish firm lay off thousands of staff, cancel numerous projects and close several studios.

Eidos-Montréal stablemate Crystal Dynamics has also made three waves of redundancies this year.

This news comes as layoffs continue to rock the games industry. Earlier this week, kids’ licensed games specialist Outright announced it was going to be cutting 27 jobs, while Sharkmob recently cut an undisclosed number of positions due to a “difficult but necessary” restructuring scheme at the studio.