A new report fromBloomberg’s Jason Schreierhas announced that Embracer Group AB is shutting down Onoma, the Canada-based video game studio formerly known asSquare EnixMontreal. The Sweden-based video game publisher acquired the studio only a few months ago, and only rebranded the team from Square Enix Montreal to Onoma a matter of weeks ago.
The massive publishing group is shutting down the video game studio Onoma, which was acquired in May andannounced its new name back in October. Known for developing the ‘GO’ series for various titles likeHitman,Deus ExandTomb Raider, the studio was actually a part of a larger acquisition that took place in August 2022. Square Enix sold its western studios to the Sweden-based conglomerate and made it the largest video game publisher in terms of market value.
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While it is not unusual forEmbracer Group AB to keep expanding its domainin the world of entertainment, it seems like the publishing giant aims to merge the studios to cut costs, as pointed out by Bloomberg. Regardless of the reason behind the decision, 200 employees at Onoma will be affected after the closure, as confirmed by an Embracer spokesperson.
Part of the studio’s staff will transfer to Eidos Montreal, which now has to slow down its pace of developing another game due to a similar cost-cutting policy. Along with the unannounced project, the studio is reportedly preparing to develop anew Deus Ex gameas well. In addition to these projects, Eidos Montreal is co-developing a new game in the Fable franchise with Microsoft.
Onoma, on the other hand, was founded in 2011 by Square Enix as Square Enix Montreal, in order to create high-quality projects and AAA titles within the IPs that belong to the company. Yet the changes within the company have led Onoma to focus on mobile games instead.
After it was acquired by the Swedish publishing giant, the studio went into a rebranding process and emerged as Onoma. In the blog post that focuses on the rebranding process, Embracer Group stated that the rebranding would revitalize the vision of the studio to create experiences that “reach” people. Based on the report ofGamesindustry.biz, Director Phil Rogers from Embracer’s subsidiary CDE Entertainment states that it was difficult for them to close Onoma, but they will do their best to find as many placements as possible for the staff members.
