Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics is the most recent subsidiary of Embracer Group to be hit with cuts, with the studio saying yesterday on Twitter that ten employees needed to be let go “as a consequence of an inner restructuring”.
And, at Embracer’s annual normal assembly (which you’ll watch on YouTube), CEO Lars Wingefors has said that the corporate might want to “proceed making robust choices” to ensure that the corporate to turn into “extra cost-efficient” (thanks, Game Developer). Wingefors reiterated that these cuts have been projected again in June, and is “assured to ship on the targets we set out for the tip of the fiscal 12 months,” which suggests the cuts will proceed till at the very least March 2024.
Crystal Dynamics was a part of Embracer’s large cope with Square Enix again in May 2022 the place it additionally acquired Square Enix Montréal and Eidos-Montréal. But this additionally got here a 12 months after the corporate purchased Gearbox — the developer of Borderlands — and months earlier than it acquired the Lord of the Rings IP and an enormous vary of different studios.
With yesterday’s announcement, Crystal Dynamics additionally requested that if any studio has positions open in “Brand Direction, Creative Services, Community, or IT” to succeed in out to them.
Senior model supervisor Nick Edwards is likely one of the names affected by the layoffs together with communications director Adam Kahn and social media supervisor Neha Nair (by way of Eurogamer).
Wingefors stated in at present’s AGM that the choice to both shut or downsize most of the groups is “robust from many standpoints”, and that Embracer may need extra luck by making an attempt to promote its greater firms and “high-value property”. Just final week, rumours circulated that the studio was weighing up the choice to promote Gearbox.
Crystal Dynamics wasn’t the one studio to endure yesterday because of Embracer’s spending and cuts, as Beamdog — the studio behind MythForce — misplaced a handful of names. And there’s additionally the closure of Saint’s Row developer Volition, too. It’s a turbulent time at Embracer, and increasingly more, it has many questioning what occurred with that spending over the previous few years.
