Layoffs at the studio Eidos Montreal were caused by the cancellation of Wildlands, whose development began in early 2019, Insider Gaming reports.
According to sources, the game faced difficulties for many years: four different game engines were used during development, there were conflicts over the narrative direction, and the budget grew to several hundred million dollars. It was precisely this inflated budget that led to the cancellation of other studio projects, including a new installment of Deus Ex in January 2024.
Gameplay footage obtained by Insider Gaming shows that Wildlands was a third-person open-world action-adventure game.
Sources claim that Wildlands was nearly complete. The game had recently passed key development milestones and was in the bug-fixing stage. Its release was planned for the end of this year. It is likely that Embracer Group lost confidence in the project and decided that further investment would not pay off.
As a reminder, ENCE has moved its academy roster to the main lineup.