Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
Embracer Group acquired Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, and Square Enix Montreal earlier this year. The latter was just recently renamed Onoma, but it looks like nothing will come of that rebranding. Embracer Group is shutting down Onoma, reassigning some of its employees to other projects.
Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier discovered that Embracer Group had informed employees of Onoma that it would be shutting down. The studio was behind popular mobile titles like Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go, and Deus Ex Go. According to the report, some of the employees have been reassigned to sister studio Edios Montreal. Embracer Group has also entered a partnership with Microsoft, with some of these workers moving over to support Playground Games in developing the new Fable.
Speaking of Eidos Montreal, the studio has had its current unannounced project’s budget cut down, and another unannounced project has been canceled altogether. All signs point toward this being a matter of financial restructuring. Oddly enough, it was just last month that Square Enix Montreal was renamed Onoma, seemingly indicating that the studio would be around for the foreseeable future.
Major acquisitions have been increasingly frequent in the gaming industry, and Embracer has been a big player on that front. After its acquisition of Square Enix assets in May, the company acquired Tripwire Interactive, Limited Run Games, and Tuxedo Labs. Back in June, Saudi Arabia paid $1 billion for a sizable 8.1% stake in the company. With how active Embracer Group has been on the business side of things, be sure to stick with Shacknews for any future updates.