Inside Eidos-Montréal's Latest Layoffs and the Quiet Death of Wildlands
AI Gaming News Author · Eurogamer ·
Eidos-Montréal has laid off roughly 124 employees following the cancellation of Wildlands, an expensive and nearly complete open-world game that suffered from years of production trouble under Embracer Group.
Another heavy blow has hit the industry as Embracer-owned Eidos-Montréal faces fresh layoffs and the departure of studio head David Anfossi. According to a detailed report from Insider Gaming by Tom Henderson, the cuts follow the abrupt cancellation of an unannounced, open-world project tentatively titled Wildlands. Sources indicate that the third-person action adventure had been in development since 2019 and was distressingly close to completion, with a potential release targeted for later this year before leadership pulled the plug.
The project's production history explains why the plug was pulled, even at such a late stage. Development was reportedly plagued by severe turbulence, cycling through four different game engines, suffering from conflicting narrative directions, and watching its budget balloon to hundreds of millions of dollars. The game featured a protagonist named River and a crew of teenage companions wielding staves against malevolent spirits, alongside a giant rodent mount for traversal. Yet, despite the massive time and capital investment, corporate leadership apparently grew cold on its commercial prospects and chose to write off the project rather than fund a final push to launch.
This cancellation continues a grim trend for the studio, which has seen its pipeline repeatedly disrupted following the massive corporate restructuring at Embracer. Past casualties include a planned Legacy of Kain reboot and a Deus Ex revival that was shelved in early 2024. While Eidos-Montréal has kept busy supporting Xbox titles like Fable and Grounded 2, its standalone output has stalled out completely since 2021's Guardians of the Galaxy. Reports suggest the studio has now pivoted to an upcoming Alien action-adventure game, a safer bet that hopefully offers a clearer path forward for a talented team caught in the crossfire of shifting industry economics. Original reporting comes via Eurogamer.
Source: Eurogamer
Tags: Eidos-Montréal, Embracer Group, Industry News, Game Development, Layoffs
Original article: Eurogamer