Eidos-Montréal, the studio renowned for its work on the modern Deus Ex series and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, has laid off 124 employees and announced the departure of long-time studio head David Anfossi. The Embracer Group-owned developer confirmed the news on March 31 in a LinkedIn statement, attributing the workforce reduction to “changing project needs” affecting both production and support teams.
Anfossi’s exit marks the end of an era for the Montréal-based studio. He joined Eidos-Montréal as a producer in 2007, contributing to the critically acclaimed Deus Ex: Human Revolution, before rising to lead the entire studio in 2013. Under his leadership, the team shipped titles including Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. The studio offered few details about the circumstances of his departure, saying only that the two sides are “parting ways” and that a transition plan is underway with no replacement yet named.
The human toll of the cuts is already visible across social media. As Rock Paper Shotgun reported, affected staff include a principal character animator, a senior AI designer, a gameplay programmer, and a junior technical animator, among others. Even developers who retained their positions noted that their projects had been hit, with one producer calling it an “incredibly sad day” and urging other studios to consider hiring the displaced talent.
This latest round of layoffs is part of a troubling pattern for Eidos-Montréal. The studio cut 75 positions in early 2025, and reports indicated further reductions came by the end of that year. The turmoil traces back to Embracer Group’s 2022 acquisition of the studio from Square Enix, after which a sweeping corporate restructuring resulted in more than 4,500 job losses across Embracer’s portfolio. A planned new entry in the Deus Ex franchise was also reportedly scrapped in early 2024 as part of those cost-cutting measures. The studio’s most recently known work has been providing support development on other publishers’ titles, including Playground Games’ Fable reboot.
Eidos-Montréal is far from alone in facing cutbacks. The first quarter of 2026 has been brutal across the gaming industry, with Epic Games slashing over 1,000 positions, Crystal Dynamics trimming staff, Ubisoft and EA’s Battlefield Studios both making cuts, and Sony shuttering partner studio Dark Outlaw Games. The persistent wave of layoffs continues to raise urgent questions about the sustainability of the industry’s current business models and the human cost borne by the developers who build its biggest games.
For now, the future of Eidos-Montréal remains uncertain. With no new studio head in place, an unclear project pipeline, and a significantly reduced workforce, the developer that once defined the immersive sim genre faces an uphill battle to chart its next chapter.