Gab Hernandez 
Embracer Group has reportedly laid off several employees at Eidos Montreal, including some who were working on what was meant to be the next Deus Ex game.
Layoffs have wreaked havoc across the video game industry and Embracer Group continues to be a constant source of them, with the holding company going through yet another restructuring. Embracer Group has visibly struggled in the past year, with valuable IPs like Borderlands reportedly being shopped around to potential buyers. A scrapped multi-billion-dollar deal with Saudi Arabia forced Embracer Group to overhaul its massive roster of developers.
Volition, the studio behind Saints Row, was among the first on the chopping block. Since then, several of Embracer Group’s studios saw restructures, layoffs, and closures. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight. Reportedly among the latest round of casualties is Eidos Montreal, and one of the projects that got caught in the crossfire of this bureaucratic bloodbath was a new Deus Ex game.
Is the next Deus Ex game canceled?
Embracer Group has reportedly canceled the next Deus Ex game.
Word of a Deus Ex remake was leaked on 4chan by an anonymous source earlier in January, which also noted that a new installment in the series was in the works at Eidos Montreal. The game allegedly would have come out in Q2 2025 or earlier. A report by Jason Schreier on Bloomberg corroborated that a Deus Ex project was indeed in the works.
The last Deus Ex game, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, was over eight years ago. Since then, other than a mobile game called Deus Ex Go, there has been no official Deus Ex news. While the series is iconic and fondly remembered by fans, it’s unknown if there is any life left in the series.
Is Deus Ex dead?
Deus Ex is not officially dead, but no new projects are confirmed to be coming.
Schreier reports that Eidos Montreal will move its focus from Deus Ex to a brand-new IP. Schreier also noted that the studio entered into a co-developer partnership with Xbox for the Fable franchise in 2022. Nothing official has materialized from that partnership.
Deus Ex hasn’t had the best of luck as a franchise in recent years. Eidos Montreal canceled the initial sequel to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Embracer Group scrapped and scrubbed it from storefronts.
It’s unclear whether Embracer Group is shelving the franchise, allocating it to a different development studio, or looking to sell it off in the same way it is offering up Borderlands. Embracer Group’s restructuring attempts could negatively impact more classic franchises in the coming weeks. Whatever the new IP is, it will have those shadows lurking behind it.
