As has already been reported, Embracer Group is among the many businesses in the industry cutting back its workforce in 2023. However, we now have a figure; during its second quarter, ending with September, the holding company has let go of 900 employees. To put that in perspective, this number represents just five per cent of its total staff.
The figure comes from the opening statements of Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors during a recent quarterly earnings presentation. "Before we get into the business details of our second quarter, I want to start this conference by saying a personal thank you to the 900 who left Embracer during the second quarter," he said.
He went on to reiterate the company is aiming to become "a leaner, stronger company", though the layoffs are "painful" and Embracer is doing "everything we can to preserve jobs without changing what we need to achieve".
Earlier in the year, the company announced a huge restructuring plan, and this has led to the layoffs mentioned as well as studios closing or reportedly being put up for sale. Teams under Embracer that have been affected so far include Crystal Dynamics, Gearbox, and, apparently, Free Radical — a team Embracer brought back to revive TimeSplitters.
[source videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 27
Baby Microsoft, buy everything with the money you have to get big fast. Sounds like they didn't had a vision at all. I feel sorry for the people that are affected as this was something they had no control over and were forced into.
Haven't you heard? It's just "restructuring".
Genuinely sorry for the people who lost their jobs. Hope they manage to land on their feet soon.
Edit: also, "left"? They didn't leave. They were fired. Just like sometimes people don't just die. They're killed. Language matters.
I honestly feel like Timesplitters is cursed franchise. Whoever seems to own it goes through financial trouble and a game never gets released.
I hope Embracer Group get blocked from buying anyone again. They had a lot of good studios and people but what have they got to show for it?
Hope all those who lost their job land on their feet soon and those who are still there find a better company to work for.
I’ll reiterate. Anybody involved in the management of this botched conglomerate should be blacklisted from the industry. They’ve toyed with people’s livelihoods while throwing around obscene amounts of money and attempting to do deals with homicidal maniacs.
This is not what embracing means.
And good luck to everyone out there, there are far better workplaces.
God what a scummy and pathetic company. Hey MS if you want to buy some more Devs buy everything Embracer still has as you will do a far better job then them.
@naruball long, long time lurker here, finally signed up to agree that language really matters..
"To put that in perspective, this number represents just five per cent of its total staff." 'Just' 5%? That's nearly 1000 people we're talking about, that's a lot of human lives not to be sniffed at.
As sad as job losses always are, for balance i'd like to see how many jobs were created from the boom during covid when investment in games was many magnitudes more than usual, and companies were rapidly expanding to match that. That always seemed unsustainable and this may just be a regression to the mean.
That doesn't make it any easier for those losing jobs, but it may be the cold reality of events.
And it does present a difficult quandary. Was it better to have those additional people employed for a few years, even if some jobs would need to be cut later VS not having them employed at all?
Bad move by Square to sell those studios and IPs to these guys. Imagine a world where Sony owned both Uncharted and Tomb Raider.
@Sil_Am They still can if they buy the studios and IP from Embracer
Probably a big downsizing. Alot of jobs that made sense when these companies were independant makes less sense now they are all under one group. Every studio doesn't need its own independant PR etc.
Sucks but was basically inevitable for many after being bought.
Perhaps they should change their name to Alienator?
@TrannosaurusBex yeah I thought the use of the word ‘just’ there was inappropriate too. It sounds like the writer is implying that 900 staff being made redundant isn’t that much, which I doubt was their intention. An oversight I’m sure, but as you say, language is important.
@GravyThief I agree, I doubt there was any malicious intent behind the use of the word. Rather, the implication is that 5% isn't very much of 100%, but when we know the 5% is in relation to nearly 1000 livelihoods I think the inclusion of 'just' is somewhat inappropriate.
Who needs government when you got such responsible private ventures creating jobs and wealth for everyone. This mess is every neoliberal's wet dream staining the sheets. But that's how it goes, privatise profits and socialize the losses.
@Areus. @Sil_Am. It’s too late for Sony. Embracer sold the rights to Tomb Raider to Amazon for 600 million, twice what they paid for it.
Geez, they might as well change their name to the opposite of 'Embracer' at this point.
@BlaizeV We use the term rightsizing in M&A consulting 😆
Company is mismanaged trash. They'll never recover from this PR nightmare. I personally don't ever want to buy another game from them after this.
@Sil_Am feels counter intuitive to have both uncharted and tomb raider.
I wonder if Sony would be interested in buying IP/studios from Embracer?
Well, they’re the stupid people who went on a spending spree with money they didn’t actually have. Sucks for the regular employees, though.
@TrannosaurusBex exactly. You can't minimize it like that. They wouldn't use that kind of language if that were their job, unless of course they had another one lined up, because we see time and time again higher ups royally screwing up and getting a cushy job as CEO or something at a different company.
Tech industry is not the place to be this year 😒
@DennisReynolds Where do people get the impression that Microsoft is a good parent company? Have we already forgotten the state they put Rare in? What happened to Lionhead studios? Forgetting 343 studios? The coalition? Microsoft is poison. Embracer is firing people cause it needs to balance themselves. Microsoft does it to increase margins and flex ego.
Most of these studios MS bought will be closed in the next 3 to 10 years, if not earlier. I wouldn't be surprised to see several closures at Bethesda soon.
@Nem Imagine defending Embracer just to bash MS. Embracer is firing because the promise of selling everything to a Saudi Arabian homicidal maniac fell through.
@DennisReynolds How do you twist things like that? You said you wanted Microsoft to buy them like they are heroes. Imagine thinking that. You think Microsoft didn't have layoffs either?
Literally a few months ago.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/07/10/microsoft-confirms-more-job-cuts-on-top-of-10000-layoffs-in-january.html
They are real heroes. 😂 Where are your feelings for the 10k that lost their jobs at MS?
I am impressed how the false impression that MS is great guys runs over here. It couldn't be farther from the truth.
@Nem Dude i was making a joke that if MS have to buy up everything why not buy the remaining studios of Embracer as well. Embracer are laying off because they're stuck with Studios they never actually intended to keep, they were basically acting as a middle man for a very shady and gross Saudi guy until that promise fell through.
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