Embracer Group has laid off 124 employees at Eidos Montreal, according to a report from Game Developer. The cuts mark another significant blow to the Canadian studio, which has now lost approximately 300 roles since 2024.
Eidos Montreal is the studio behind the Deus Ex and Thief reboots, and more recently served as a key contributor to Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel's Avengers. The continued downsizing raises serious questions about what the studio's future output will look like with a workforce that has shrunk so dramatically over such a short window.
This is far from an isolated incident for Embracer. The Swedish conglomerate embarked on one of the most aggressive acquisition sprees in gaming history between 2020 and 2022, snapping up dozens of studios. When a reported $2 billion deal with a Saudi Arabian partner fell through in 2023, the company pivoted hard into cost-cutting mode, triggering a wave of layoffs and studio closures that has continued well into 2025.
The human cost of that strategy is substantial. Hundreds of developers at Eidos Montreal alone have lost their positions, and that's just one studio in a portfolio that includes Crystal Dynamics, Gearbox, and many others that have faced similar headcount reductions or outright closure during this restructuring period.
What makes the Eidos Montreal situation particularly difficult to watch is the studio's track record. Guardians of the Galaxy in particular was a critical darling that demonstrated the team had serious creative chops - a game that genuinely surprised people who wrote it off as another licensed cash-grab. Losing that kind of institutional talent and experience is the sort of damage that doesn't get undone quickly, even if Embracer stabilizes its finances.
Embracer has not publicly detailed which projects, if any, at Eidos Montreal are still in active development following the cuts. As of writing, Game Developer's report does not include a statement from Embracer clarifying the studio's direction post-layoffs.
For the 124 developers affected, the timing is rough in an industry that has seen mass layoffs across nearly every major publisher and developer over the past two years. The games job market remains highly competitive, and absorbing this many displaced workers from a single studio is no small ask.
