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Embracer Group Cancels ‘Deus Ex’ Video Game, Lays Off 97 Employees

Hudo

Member
If Schreier is indeed correct, then Embracer have killed all but one of the projects I've been interested in.

They've killed Campfire Cabal, who were working on the next Expeditions game.
And while they haven't completely killed Eidos, they've killed off Deus Ex.

Luckily for Homeworld 3, they're so far into the project that cancelling it would be completely retarded, so that's safe. Thank fucking god.
 
House Depression GIF
 

winjer

Member
They did. They have half a billion dollars cash on hand as of September. They planned on having more investment funding coming in and that fell through.

That shortfall has resulted in them being over extended by a large sum and like any entity whose expenses outweigh their income, they've had to tighten their belt.

I never believed in Embracer, but people pretending like they were simply stupid are entirely naive about how business works. They took a large gamble based on what they understood to be the case at a certain time and things changed very quickly on them.

Global inflation and increased interest rates. The fed didn't really start to get that aggressive until after they bought Crystal Dynamics and Eidos. That's why they went out for Saudi investment because the Saudis are looking to invest in non-oil businesses right now. Saudis invested 1 billion in Embracer in June of 2022 after rates started going up and after the crystal dynamics and eidos purchase.

Half a Billion is not that much, in an age when many AAA games cost over 100M to make.
With the amount of studios that Embracer bought, that is barely enough to keep all those studios running for a few months.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Half a Billion is not that much, in an age when many AAA games cost over 100M to make.
With the amount of studios that Embracer bought, that is barely enough to keep all those studios running for a few months.

Embracer isn't a video game company, it's an investment portfolio. Likely it's enough to fund them for at least a year.

They had a 2 billion dollar funding deal fall through.

Combine that deal with the revenue they thought they'd be able to obtain within the next 2-4 years from games that would be funded by that 2 billion dollars. Many of these games would have been eaten up by GamePass and PS+.

Ironically, they might have to sell some of these games to other publishers before everything is said and done.
 

winjer

Member
Embracer isn't a video game company, it's an investment portfolio. Likely it's enough to fund them for at least a year.

They had a 2 billion dollar funding deal fall through.

Combine that deal with the revenue they thought they'd be able to obtain within the next 2-4 years from games that would be funded by that 2 billion dollars. Many of these games would have been eaten up by GamePass and PS+.

Ironically, they might have to sell some of these games to other publishers before everything is said and done.

Game company or investment portfolio company, the fact remain that they screwed up. Bit time.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Game company or investment portfolio company, the fact remain that they screwed up. Bit time.

Without knowledge of why the Saudis pulled out of the deal, it's really difficult to say that they screwed up big time.

I mean you could argue getting in bed with the Saudis itself was a mistake, but again, this is an investment portfolio and the Saudis were essentially their investment client.
 

winjer

Member
Without knowledge of why the Saudis pulled out of the deal, it's really difficult to say that they screwed up big time.

I mean you could argue getting in bed with the Saudis itself was a mistake, but again, this is an investment portfolio and the Saudis were essentially their investment client.

Embracer counting their chickens before they hatch, was their mistake.
One can't risk a whole company and so many studios, on the presumption that more people will invest. And then buy more studios, and find more people to invest.
That is like a pyramid scheme, waiting to crumble. And that is what is happening now, as the whole scheme is falling down.

 

Red5

Member
If Schreier is indeed correct, then Embracer have killed all but one of the projects I've been interested in.

They've killed Campfire Cabal, who were working on the next Expeditions game.
And while they haven't completely killed Eidos, they've killed off Deus Ex.

Luckily for Homeworld 3, they're so far into the project that cancelling it would be completely retarded, so that's safe. Thank fucking god.

I don't think they can cancel Homeworld 3 even if they wanted to. BlackBird is contracted to make the game by Gearbox and from what I read Gearbox is too big to close and they might just buy themselves out of Embracer and back to being independent.
 
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You've got to wonder at this point exactly what it is that they are doing. You spend all this money on IPs and then don't move forward with anything substantive with them. It would be interesting to see what the business plan is here.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Embracer counting their chickens before they hatch, was their mistake.
One can't risk a whole company and so many studios, on the presumption that more people will invest. And then buy more studios, and find more people to invest.
That is like a pyramid scheme, waiting to crumble. And that is what is happening now, as the whole scheme is falling down.


They had a deal in place, so they weren't counting on more people to invest.

Again, you seem to be misunderstanding the very nature of Embracer, which I've explained to you is an investment portfolio for the Saudis.

You clearly don't know what a pyramid scheme is.
 

winjer

Member
They had a deal in place, so they weren't counting on more people to invest.

Again, you seem to be misunderstanding the very nature of Embracer, which I've explained to you is an investment portfolio for the Saudis.

You clearly don't know what a pyramid scheme is.

Seems to me you don't understand that just buying companies and not having money to them make products to sell, is not a sound idea.
 

winjer

Member
Say it with me, they're not a video game company. Their goal isn't even to make games.

Of course not. They are a bunch of muppets that just lost millions, because they have no idea what they are doing.
And because of that, hundreds of people are losing their jobs.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
So the franchise is pretty much dead....
This is fucked....
Embracer would have to sell the IP again, because it's unlikely they'll try again after sinking 2 years and cancelling.

The chances are becoming smaller and smaller every year. We're getting close to 10 years since the last Deus Ex game and there was also a missed chance to make the game when Cyberpunk blew up and you could deliver another immersive title taking place in the near future.
 

Kerotan

Member
First smart thing Embracer has done. There was never a point in trying to make another of these since their efforts were never going to eclipse what SQEX did. SQEX paid for 2 games, and they were heavily marketed with extremely impressive CG trailers. Sales tanked. Better to cancel this than close the studio.
So sad I loved those games.
 

GinSama

Member
Embracer would have to sell the IP again, because it's unlikely they'll try again after sinking 2 years and cancelling.

The chances are becoming smaller and smaller every year. We're getting close to 10 years since the last Deus Ex game and there was also a missed chance to make the game when Cyberpunk blew up and you could deliver another immersive title taking place in the near future.
Exactly I was expecting something about deus ex by now, since the boom of cyberpunk we had a lot of similar games and they were from much smaller teams.....
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
To my understanding they're licencing the brand while Embracer still holds the full rights to Tomb Raider franchise. Either way, Amazon seems to have large plans with this as they will not only publish the next game, but are also working on the movie and TV series
Sounds like a good time to try and buy out the IP from Embracer on the cheap.
 
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