Following the acquisition of a number of of Sq. Enix’s western belongings earlier this 12 months, Swedish conglomerate Embracer Group has shuttered Studio Onoma, previously Sq. Enix Montreal, experiences gamesindustry.biz.
Embracer will as an alternative give attention to two of the opposite studios included within the acquisition: Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal.
Round 200 folks might be affected by the shutdown, though CDE Leisure, the Embracer owned enterprise group which manages the belongings acquired from Sq. Enix, has acknowledged it’s going to attempt to place some former Onoma staff inside PC and console tasks elsewhere within the firm.
CDE has acknowledged that the closures are as a result of a give attention to manufacturing inside Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal. As a part of the deal, these studios maintained the rights to their core franchises, similar to Tomb Raider and Legacy of Kain.
Time to Embrace change?
Onoma was based in 2011 to extend Sq. Enix’s improvement capability for AAA tasks, however quickly pivoted to cell improvement. The studio is finest identified for the event of cell video games primarily based on video games elsewhere within the Sq. Enix household. As the one cell centered studio amongst these included within the acquisition, it’s clear that Embracer Group are centered on AAA titles, and by shuttering Onoma so quickly after it’s acquisition and rebrand this may very well be an try to retain established expertise wherever potential whereas nonetheless specializing in Embracer’s long-term enterprise technique.
“We see the expansion alternatives centered round our premier franchises and AAA video games,” stated CDE director Phil Rogers. “Closing publishing QA and our Onoma studio is a tough resolution and one which we have taken with nice care and consideration. We vastly thank all these group members for his or her contributions through the years and hope to search out correct placements for as many as potential.”
It is at the moment unknown what’s going to occur to the video games at the moment below improvement throughout the studio, though it’s probably that some that are being co-developed with different studios and Recreation Makers, similar to Avatar Generations, will see the event focus elsewhere.
Earlier this 12 months, we listed Embracer Group as one of many prime 50 cell recreation makers of 2022.
