Less than a week after Crystal Dynamics laid off 17 employees "to better align our current business needs," Eidos Montreal has announced that it's letting go of "up to 75" employees, saying it doesn't currently have sufficient work to justify keeping them around.
"Today, we informed our studio staff that we are going to let go up to 75 valuable members, as one of our mandates is coming to an end," the studio said in a message posted to X. "It is not a reflection of their dedication or skills, but unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to entirely reallocate them to our other ongoing projects and services. These very talented, highly experienced experts are going to enter the employment market, and we are working to support them through this transition."
It's quite a turnaround from just a couple years ago, when Eidos Montreal was reportedly working as a support studio on the new Fable as well as a "recently rescoped" new property and, finally, a new Deus Ex game that was at that point "very very early" in development.
But that seeming good news didn't last: Eidos Montreal, along with Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix Montreal, had been acquired by Embracer in August 2022, but Embracer hit an iceberg less than a year later when a $2 billion investment deal, later revealed to be with Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group, fell through. The studio didn't escape the fallout from Embracer's drawn out implosion, laying off 97 people in January 2024 and cancelling the new Deus Ex project.
That's what makes the Crystal Dynamics layoffs last week especially notable: It too is an Embracer studio, and while Embracer said in March 2024 that its restructuring process was coming to an end, 2024 saw the closure of Pieces Interactive and reported shutdown of Piranha Bytes, as well as layoffs at Lost Boys Interactive and Cryptic Studios. Kicking off 2025 with even more layoffs at more studios could be a sign that, restructuring or not, the company isn't done making cuts.
Eidos Montreal said in its layoff message that it remains "committed to deliver its other projects currently in development." I've reached out to Eidos Montreal and Embracer for comment and will update if I receive a reply.
