Eidos Montreal reduces workforce by 75 in additional staff cuts at Deus Ex development studio

75 people have been let go by Eidos-Montreal, the studio announced yesterday. The Deus Ex and Tomb Raider developers laid off the workers because they didn’t have the “capacity to entirely reallocate them”, according to a statement. It’s a further blow to the workforce at the Embracer-owned company, following hefty cuts last year.

“Today, we informed our studio staff that we are going to let go up to 75 valuable members, as one of our mandates is coming to an end,” said management in the post on LinkedIn. “It is not a reflection of their dedication or skills, but unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to entirely reallocate them to our other ongoing projects and services.

“These very talented, highly experienced experts are going to enter the employment market, and we are working to support them through this transition.”

The company doesn’t specify what that “mandate” is. But it most likely means that work on a current project is finishing, for whatever reason. Note the classic use of not-our-fault spinlingo. The statement says the axed workers are “going to enter the employment market” rather than, say, being frogmarched there.

“Eidos-Montréal stays committed to deliver its other projects currently in development,” they added.

The only project that the studio has publicly acknowledged they’ve been working on lately is the delayed Fable, on which they’re helping out alongside core developer Playground Games. The company cancelled a Deus Ex game last year, and laid off 100 workers in the wake of that cancellation. We don’t know what else they’re doing right now.

Eidos-Montreal was bought by Embracer Group in 2022, following the release of Guardians of the Galaxy the year before. Soon afterwards Embracer began a ruthless cost-cutting purge of workers across all its studios. In March last year, Embracer’s CEO claimed this process of “restructuring” was over. But since then the multinational conglomerate has overseen the closure of the Gothic developers, the axing of 139 people from a Diablo IV support studio, and just last week other layoffs at Crystal Dynamics.