Embracer Starts Shutting Studios As the Downsides of Consolidation Surface

The Embracer Group is a Swedish video game media holding that, for years now, has been quietly acquiring smaller studios, and a frankly ludicrous number of them at that. With 131 internal video game studios and 15,000 staff worldwide, it seemed too unwieldy to manage, and sure enough, a mass round of layoffs was announced, with the company announcing major internal restructuring in June. For comparison, PlayStation Studios currently houses 22 developers and employs around 4000 people.

The effects of this restructuring are beginning to be felt. On LinkedIn, Bruno-Christian Beliboua, executive producer at Campfire Cabal, announced that the studio had been closed as a result. Campfire Cabal was only founded last September and thus didn’t get the chance to ship a game. Whatever they were working on wasn’t revealed, but the studio’s founder Jonas Wæver created the Expeditions series of historical RPGs and had been tasked with helming future entries in the series.