Despite some good news, we must admit that the start of the year was complicated for many people in the video game sector, particularly at Embracer which owns the Tomb Raider franchise.
Since June 2023, Embracer Group (which owns the Tomb Raider franchise) has undergone significant transformation following the collapse of its $2 billion deal with Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group, leading to the need to balance its finances. As a result, the company launched an internal restructuring program resulting in massive layoffs, studio closures and project cancellations… All sad news for everyone.
Fewer Tomb Raider games?
Could it be that a Tomb Raider game that was planned will ultimately be canceled altogether? In any case, the impact of these changes has become clearer in the recently published tax report for the third quarter of the 2023/24 financial year (covering the period October to December). On this occasion, Embracer Group revealed that the number of unannounced games in development had fallen from 153 to 124. This means that thecompany canceled 29 unannounced games since the start of its restructuring. From there, you can imagine anything. Embracer Group owns a wide range of franchises in the world of video games and beyond. Notable acquisitions include the rights to major licenses such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Legacy of Kain and Thief.
Not all of these cancellations, involving unannounced games, have received much media attention, but some have nevertheless made headlines in recent months. We were also able to tell you about it on Gameblog. In December, Embracer Group shut down Free Radical Design, canceling the highly anticipated TimeSplitters reboot. More recently, reports indicated that a new Deus Ex game, in development at Eidos Montreal for two years, had also been shelved.
Many possibilities
Note also that Embracer owns the rights to The Lord of the Rings. We can therefore imagine within the 29 canceled titles something related to Tolkien’s license. Overall, Embracer Group now owns 271 intellectual properties and franchises across 88 in-house game development studios, covering a wide range of genres and formats, from AAA titles to smaller licensed multiplayer games. These franchises include Deep Silver titles like Dead Island, Metro, and Saints Row, as well as high-grossing games like Borderlands. Tomb Raider is therefore not the only big license that can be affected. And luckily, the next Unreal Engine 5 game is still on the way.
These drastic measures reflect the challenges Embracer Group faces in an ever-changing industry, as well as the repercussions of its strategic decisions. The restructuring and cancellations signal a period of transition for the company, which seeks to readjust in a fairly difficult economic context.