The Embracer Group, the much maligned brand that became known for buying up stuff, not doing stuff with the stuff they bought, then closing down the stuff, is teasing they got major stuff coming.
News came from the brand’s 2025 interim report, with executives teasing a “long-awaited” game for the next fiscal year — which, in Embracer terms, will run from April, 2026 to March, 2027 — but refused to name the new piece to its shareholders.
Now, we know Embracer is cooking a lot of…stuff, such as:
- The Gothic remake
- Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis
- Tomb Raider: Catalyst
- Darksiders 4
These are all that we know of, mind you, so it is unlikely that Embracer Group is referring to any of them as the report, as they are A) all mentioned by name elsewhere in the document; and B) the company has promoted them already. It would be a weird way to communicate a “major release” like that by not naming it in one paragraph, only to have them mentioned in another.
Hell, we even did a quick dive on all things known about Darksiders 4 ourselves.
Now, there is a good chance that this “long-awaited” release is still an unannounced project, and given that GDC 2026 is closing in (March, 2026, in San Francisco), we may hear about it sooner rather than later.
Playing the guessing game won’t do you any favors either: according to the group’s own “About” page, Embracer has nearly 7,000 employees working in well over 30 countries. Currently, the groups comprises six operative groups: CDE Entertainment, Dark Horse Media, Deca Games, Freemode, Plaion and THQ Nordic.
But given that each of these inside groups have their own subsidiaries, we’re talking dozens upon dozens of companies under the same umbrella — and their products all overlap, somewhat.
Don’t hold your breath on Embracer’s latest movements
As gamers, we are always conditioned on believing in second chances, and that is also true in the case of the Embracer Group. Color us hopeful, always, but we’d remiss not to remind you that this is the company known for some infamous controversies.
The most well-known case stems from a verbally agreed-upon $2 billion investment deal with Saudi-backed Savvy Games Group, announced in late 2022 but abruptly terminated in May 2023 without public explanation from Embracer (though reports point to Savvy pulling out).
This case brought a massive “comprehensive restructuring program” lasting until March 2024, which included divesting assets at a loss (e.g., Saber Interactive for $247 million after buying it for $525 million, Gearbox to Take-Two for $460 million after $1.3 billion), closing studios, canceling projects, and laying off hundreds.
The deal’s collapse exposed Embracer’s overleveraged strategy, bloated debt (peaking at $2 billion), and reliance on pandemic-fueled valuations that crashed post-2022 amid rising interest rates and market cooling. CEO Lars Wingefors called the backlash “painful” but admitted mistakes in execution.
In the wake of the deal collapse, Embracer slashed its workforce by 4,532 employees (27% of staff, including 3,727 game developers) from June 2023 to May 2024 alone, with further cuts bringing the total headcount down from 15,701 in November 2024 to 7,873 by year-end. Initial reports cited 904 layoffs by November 2023 (5% of workforce), escalating to 1,400+ in the first eight months of restructuring. The cuts were labeled “cost-saving measures to improve profitability”.
There’s also the closure of Saints Row studio Volition, after the game failed to meet commercial expectations. Granted, the game wasn’t all that it was hyped to be (personally, I think they should’ve kept the brand on its idiotic, over-the-top approach, but this game tried to be “comedy serious”). However, the studio had 30 years of history, and its closure affected 160 people, ending work on potential sequels or fixes.
There was also the closure of Free Radical Design in December 2023, canceling a TimeSplitters reboot that had been in development since 2021. The UK studio, known for GoldenEye 007 and Timesplitters, was acquired in 2021 with promises of revival but fell victim to restructuring. This joined 44 total studio closures (including Piranha Bytes, Pieces Interactive), fueling accusations of Embracer buying cult IPs for speculation, not nurturing them. Recent echoes include Killing Floor 3’s failure in 2025, confirming ongoing mismanagement.
And, in January 2024, Bloomberg reported Embracer canceled a Deus Ex sequel after two years of development at Eidos Montréal, leading to unspecified layoffs there alongside broader cuts at Crystal Dynamics. This was part of 29 unannounced game cancellations in just six months (July–December 2023), with total projects axed reaching 80+ during restructuring. Fans decried the loss of progress on the cyberpunk RPG franchise (previously acclaimed titles like Human Revolution), viewing it as Embracer squandering acquired IPs from the $300 million Square Enix Montreal purchase in 2022.
All of this, mind you, is not us dunking on Embracer Group. This is more like reminding you that it is a major conglomerate, one that has been known for taking questionable risks, betting on a strategy that led to a bloated portfolio which, in turn, brought major cancellations of projects that could otherwise be great.
So when they say they have a “long-awaited” release coming, and acts cagey about it, let’s just say we have more reason to be suspectful than hopeful.
