Embracer Group Doesn’t Plan To Buy New Studios Yet Following Mass Layoffs
After a period of layoffs, game cancellations, and studio closures, Embracer Group says its restructuring period is now over. This process began last year and lasted for nine months, but now that it’s over, don’t expect Embracer to start acquiring new studios anytime soon. During a recent investor call, CEO Lars Wingefors said that it was “way too early” to start talking about mergers and acquisitions again.
“We are ending the restructuring program now, end of March, and the Gearbox restructuring process has been part of that program,” Wingefors said (via Rock Paper Shotgun). “Now we are getting approached, I would say not quite daily, but on a weekly basis, by companies that would like to acquire certain assets within the group. And I’ve been very clear that they’re not for sale, because they’re a very important part for the group and for the shareholders of the group going forward.”
Wingefors added that the companies Embracer sold had a “negative cashflow” and separating from them has made the company “cashflow generative”. Embracer won’t be going on a buying spree again for a while, as Wingefors added that the company will instead be focusing on increasing profitability by making “better products and games” using its available assets, IPS, and studios. “I think it’s way too early to start talking about restarting the merger and acquisitions engines again,” Wingefors said.
Since last year, there have been major changes at Embracer as Saints Row developer Volition and TimeSplitters studio Free Radical were closed, 29 games were canceled, and 1,400 people were laid off in six months. Recently, Saber Interactive divested itself of Embracer Group and Take-Two Interactive purchased Gearbox Entertainment from the company for $460 million.
All of these cuts and sales were partly made due to a major deal falling through, which was later revealed to be a pact with Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games reportedly valued at $2 billion.
Baldur’s Gate Dev Talks Appeal Of AI But Not As A Replacement For Human Developers
One of the most talked-about issues in gaming in recent times has been around the rise of artificial intelligence systems and how they may be further incorporated into gaming in the future. Larian Studios boss Swen Vincke has now weighed in with his thoughts. Speaking to Eurogamer, Vincke said Larian does not see AI as a “replacement for developers.”
But deployed the right way, AI could allow Larian to “do more stuff.” As an example, if an NPC in a game had just one line of dialogue, that might be a place for AI to step in to do the work.
“There’s not a lot of creative accomplishment to be had by putting the camera on a singular NPC that only has a couple of notes–I’m very happy for AI to handle that,” he said. “We’re not going to do that for the very complicated scenes because there, the artistry is going to shine through. So there’s uses for it.”
AI could also play a role in augmenting “reactivity and dialogues” in games if the AI systems become more advanced over time.
“So you would, for instance, have writers and a scripter and cinematic designer, and everybody that goes with it, you would have them make their entire scene, and then you would augment some reactivity into it, to things that you’ve done before,” he said. “So it is about, for instance, let’s say it’s a guard talking about a murderer that is free in the city. We don’t have to foresee all of the possible people that you could have killed in the NPC[‘s lines], but they could be talking about that, right? And say if it’s like multiple people, they could say, ‘Oh my god!’ and it’s like, literally a serial killer.”
Vincke said he thinks players would respond positively to something like this. Overall, Vincke said he sees AI as an “additional tool” that a developer can use to layer on top of other things in a game. Larian is “doing experiments with that” currently, he said. But it’s still early days, and any experimentations in this department are “far from being usable.”
Larian is not alone in embracing the possibilities that AI could afford game developers. For its part, Electronic Arts is a big believer in AI and recently found that about 60% of its game development processes could be positively impacted by using AI. Microsoft is heavily invested in AI and has said AI will be baked into every product it makes going forward, including Xbox.
EA and Microsoft both implemented mass layoffs around the same time of announcing plans to push further into AI. The possibility that AI could replace human jobs is a major concern raised by many, and EA has been up front in saying AI will likely lead to significant job losses.
Larian is not making any Baldur’s Gate 3 DLC or Baldur’s Gate 4. Instead, the company is working on a totally new, non-D&D game that Vincke is excited to eventually talk about.
“Still familiar enough, but different. I mean, like: tone, style, way of doing it, are for us certainly new. And I think very appealing,” Vincke told Eurogamer. “I would love to talk about it already because I’m excited about it but I can’t say more. But it’s new in that sense.”
The Witcher 4 Has More Than 400 People Working On It, Full Production Begins This Year
Development on the The Witcher 4–codenamed Polaris–has taken another step forward, as CD Projekt Red revealed that it has 403 employees working on it. Earlier this year, joint CEO Adam Badowski had mentioned how he was aiming to have “around 400” people on the next mainline Witcher game. This is roughly two-thirds of CDPR’s workforce, and according to joint CEO Michal Nowakowski (via VGC), this will allow the production phase of the game to begin later this year.
Early in the development of Polaris, Nowakowski mentioned how the game had just 17 people working on it as most of the staff had been reorganized and sent to work on other projects following the release of Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion. Cyberpunk 2077 still has 17 people providing support, while other projects like Orion, Sirius, and Hadar have 47, 37, and 20 people working on them, respectively. As of February 29, 2024, CDPR has 627 developers assigned to several games, services, and other projects.
Polaris is the fourth main Witcher game and will be the start of a new trilogy in the series. The first Witcher game is also getting a remake and CDPR is aiming to modernize it while also removing some of its more dated elements. During the development of Phantom Liberty, CDPR implemented an organizational overhaul. The company has aimed to create more open lines of communication and set up flexible teams that can quickly respond to any issues during the production of a game.
Halo And COD Support Dev Lays Off 25 People, Citing “Unprecedented Challenges”
Certain Affinity, an independent game developer known for assisting on mega-franchises like Call of Duty and Halo, has laid off a significant number of workers in just the latest example of mass layoffs in the video game industry.
In a blog post, CEO Max Hoberman said the video game industry has faced “unprecedented challenges” in the past 12 months, and Certain Affinity is not immune to those issues. In response, Certain Affinity is laying off 25 of its US-based workers. The majority of those impacted are on teams handling business operations, Hoberman said. Certain Affinity’s website said the company has about 250 employees, so 25 layoffs works out to around 10% of the company. That percentage might not be accurate given that Certain Affinity also operates in Canada, nor do we know when the website might have been updated last.
This was Certain Affinity’s first mass layoff in the company’s 17-year history. Explaining the cuts, Hoberman said the “most significant” element was the “industry-wide slowdown” of funding for the kind of work that Certain Affinity does, which includes co-development. Additionally, third-party investors are showing “reluctance” to fund games and game companies, and this has made it “exceptionally difficult to sign new work or secure other forms of funding.”
Affected staffers at Certain Affinity are getting severance pay and continuing benefits. Additionally, those being let go are having their vested stock awards made “portable” so affected staffers are still able to reap the rewards down the road.
“We have built an amazing culture where we all come together to support one another in times of need. We ask for your understanding and patience while we navigate this unprecedented event. Thank you,” Hoberman said.
Based in Austin, Texas, Certain Affinity has worked on huge franchises like Call of Duty, Halo, Mafia, Doom, World of Tanks, Hogwarts Legacy, and more. The studio has made its own games, too, including Age of Booty and Crimson Alliance. Looking ahead, Certain Affinity is making its own original FPS game, currently in the works under the codename Project Loro.
The company’s founder and CEO, Hoberman, was the multiplayer/online lead for the Halo series at Bungie before leaving to start Certain Affinity in 2006.
2024 has been another tough year for game developers, with a reported 8,000+ layoffs in the video game industry so far this year. Some are expecting the run of mass layoffs to continue. For more, check out GameSpot’s piece on video game industry layoffs and how we got here.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 Update Arrives On PC And PS5, Adding A Much-Requested Feature
Capcom is finally letting Dragon’s Dogma 2 players begin a brand-new game after previously starting an adventure, something that surprisingly wasn’t available when the action-RPG launched earlier this month. It’s one of the major focuses of an update that’s now available on PS5 and PC. The patch should arrive on Xbox Series X|S “in the next few days.”
Other notable tweaks to Dragon’s Dogma 2 as part of the official patch notes include being able to obtain a dwelling earlier in the game and new graphical options on PS5. For example, PlayStation players can now turn off motion blur as well as cap frame rate at 30fps in the options menu.
Earlier this week, Capcom revealed that Dragon’s Dogma 2 would receive the critical new-game option that previously wasn’t available. This omission led to negative Steam user reviews, since people couldn’t even delete their save to start up a fresh playthrough.
Looking ahead, Capcom has plans for “improvements to frame rate” for Dragon’s Dogma 2. Another sore subject for players has been microtransactions, though there is already a Dragon’s Dogma 2 mod letting people circumvent them.
For more, check out 20 things to know before playing Dragon’s Dogma 2. Don’t forget to read GameSpot’s Dragon’s Dogma 2 review, either.
Full patch notes are below:
PlayStation 5 / Steam
- Adding the option to start a new game when save data already exists.
- Changing the number of “Art of Metamorphosis” items available at Pawn Guilds in the game to 99.
- Making the quest that allows players to acquire their own dwelling (where they can save and rest) available earlier in the game.
- Miscellaneous text display issues.
- Miscellaneous bug fixes.
PlayStation 5
- Adding the option* to switch Motion Blur on/off in Options.
- Adding the option* to switch Ray Tracing on/off in Options.
- Adding the option to set Frame Rate at Max 30fps in Options.
Steam
- Improving quality when DLSS SUPER RESOLUTION is enabled.
- Fixing an issue related to the display of models under some specific settings.
*These options won’t affect frame rate significantly. Improvements to frame rate are planned for future updates.
Updates to Xbox Series X|S are planned in the next few days.