Eidos Montrealdeveloper behind Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Deus Ex series, has been hit with another round of layoffs, marking another in a recent string of setbacks for the studio. This latest staff shakeup marks the third year in a row that Eidos Montreal has seen a reduction in staff following the 2022 acquisition of Embracer Group.
This latest development follows a difficult period for the studio, which previously experienced layoffs in 2025. At that time, up to 75 people were laid off from Eidos Montreal. Like this latest round of layoffs, it was conceived as part of changing project needs. Eidos Montreal acquired Embracer Group in 2022 as part of a larger deal involving several studios owned by Square Enix. Since then, Embracer has undergone a significant restructuring effort. Three consecutive years of layoffs suggests these changes are still having an impact on the studio.
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Eidos Montreal confirms that hundreds of employees have been laid off
Eidos Montreal confirmed the layoffs in a LinkedIn post on March 30, 2026. In the post, the studio confirmed that 124 employees would be affected due to “changing project needs”, noting that the studio needed to adjust its workforce to better match its current development needs. Eidos Montreal specifically noted that this decision was not based on employee performance, but as with the 2025 layoffs, the studio framed it around changing needs. It's one of many layoffs that have hit this month, including 1,000 people being let go at Epic Games.
As part of the layoffs, it was also announced that longtime studio head David Anfossi would be leaving the company. Anfossi ran the studio for 13 years, across major projects including his own Shadow of the Tomb Raider support with Crystal Dynamics, Deus Ex, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxyand recent Xbox projects. In total, Anfossi spent nearly two decades with Eidos Montreal. Changes in leadership can often signal a shift in direction, especially when they occur concurrently with company restructuring. In a post announcing the layoffs, the company said a transition plan is currently underway. However, no new management has been announced at the time of writing.
Eidos Montreal's recent challenges could be related to recent changes in its project timeline. Bloomberg's Jason Schrier recently confirmed on Reddit that along with the latest wave of layoffs, a rumored, unannounced AAA project that Eidos Montreal had been working on since 2019 was also canceled. Deus Ex continued and 97 of its employees were terminated. The studio has recently been working on supporting first-party Xbox games such as Grounded 2 and upcoming Fable.
More broadly, the layoffs at Eidos Montreal reflect ongoing struggles across the video game industry, where studios of all sizes have faced repeated rounds of downsizing over the past few years. Anfossi himself indicated in his LinkedIn post announcing his departure from Eidos Montreal that the industry was undergoing a reset. In 2026 alone, there were more than a dozen study closures and subsequent layoffs.
Changing development costs, evolving player expectations, post-Covid-19 spending boom recovery, and extensive restructuring efforts have contributed to an increasingly volatile environment for developers. Eidos Montreal's situation is unfortunately not an isolated case, but part of a wider trend affecting teams across the industry. Even established studios with seemingly bulletproof franchises like Epic Games and Fortnite he feels the pressure.
