Igennem de sidste par år har Embracer Group været meget, meget aggressive, og det har mest kunne ses i det utal af studiekøb de har foretaget. Lords of the Rings-licensen, Gearbox, Koch Media - de har købt stort ind, men noget tyder på at de nu må revurdere deres strategi fremadrettet.
I et åbent brev bekræfter CEO Lars Wingefors, at de nu skal gennemgå en drastisk omstrukturering, der betyder fyringer i stor stil - faktisk vil han ikke fortælle hvor mange der skal fyres frem mod årets udgang.
"The program is divided into different phases until March 2024 with focus on cost savings, capital allocation, efficiency and consolidation. The initial phase, which is initiated immediately, mainly targets cost savings across the group. The next phase, which also starts immediately, will require further analysis to determine specific actions. The last phase will focus on internal consolidation, further resource utilization and more synergies across the Group. The actions for each affected company will be implemented by the new interim COO and CSO in collaboration with each operative group CEO and management teams. Embracer currently engages close to 17,000 people and while that number will be lower by the end of the year, it is too early to give an exact forecast on this."
Han bekræfter at nogle spil vil blive direkte aflyst, men går ikke i dybden med hvilke der præcist er tale om.
"The actions will include, but not be limited to, closing or divestments of some studios and the termination or pausing of some ongoing game development projects. It will also include decreased spending on non-development costs such as overhead and other operating expenses. We will reduce third party publishing and put greater focus on internal IP and increase external funding of large-budget games."
Allerede ved vi at Crystal Dynamics ikke er påvirket, eftersom de lynhurtigt har reageret på nyheden med følgende besked på Twitter:
<social>https://twitter.com/CrystalDynamics/status/1668535539283398656</social>