Embracer Group is spinning off Fellowship Leisure, a brand new enterprise unit geared toward increasing The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider and respiratory new life into a number of the firm’s dormant online game franchises.
Embracer founder and chairman Lars Wingefors stated in a letter to buyers that the brand new Fellowship Leisure will “extra aggressively discover” exterior partnerships round big-name IP akin to Saints Row, Legacy of Kain, Deus Ex, Purple Faction, The Masks, Thief and TimeSplitters.
It is a trace that these franchises may even see new video games developed by studios not below Embracer’s umbrella. Whereas Winge Pressure did not explicitly affirm the brand new recreation or announce when extra information would come, there’s now hope for a few of these collection that followers thought was empty.
Take Saints Row for instance. Earlier this 12 months, Saints Row 1 design director Chris Stockman stated he thought-about the collection “useless” and that Embracer had “zero means” to do something with it. Grand Theft Auto’s former rival hasn’t had a brand new entrant since 2022’s ill-fated reboot Saints Row. The sport acquired combined evaluations from followers, receiving a 6/10 score in videogameaddicted’s Saints Row overview. “Saints Row is an all-too-familiar model of uninspired sandbox enjoyable, although it is not quick on shallow shooter thrills,” we stated on the time. Gross sales declined, and the developer, Volition, closed down in 2023.
Subsequent is Deus Ex. Earlier this 12 months, Deus Ex star Elias Toufexis named Embracer “Psycho-Go” as a brand new installment of the dormant stealth-action collection awaits. in put up In X, Toufexis introduced his work schedule for 2026, and Deus Ex followers advised that one among his mysterious tasks may need been a long-awaited new Deus Ex sequel, however Toufexis shortly scrapped it. “…deus ex isn’t any good as a result of the particular person in cost is a psychopath,” Toufexis wrote.
Toufexis has been a vocal proponent of a brand new Deus Ex recreation for years, and 2016 marks the tenth anniversary of the sport’s arrival. Deus Ex: Humanity is split. Developed by Eidos Montreal, the sport was launched on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One to constructive evaluations.
Nevertheless, for the subsequent few years, quite than growing sequels, Eidos Montreal continued its position as a help studio for the Tomb Raider collection, in addition to engaged on Sq. Enix’s unsuccessful live-service recreation Marvel’s Avengers and its personal tackle Guardians of the Galaxy. Deus Ex fell by the wayside as these franchises took precedence.
Fan pleasure for the brand new Deus Ex was reignited after Sq. Enix bought the Eidos Montreal and Deus Ex franchises to writer Embracer, and the brand new installment within the collection was reportedly in growth for 2 years. Sadly, the challenge was reportedly scrapped in 2024 amid a serious reorganization at Embracer.
TimeSplitters was additionally hit by recreation cancellations and studio closures. 2021, then writer Deep Silver Lastly asserting the return of TimeSplitterswas developed in a brand new studio in Nottingham, UK by a lot of Free Radical Design’s key authentic members, together with founders Steve Ellis and David Doak. Nevertheless, in December 2023, Stopping free radical exercise center the hugger It was reorganized and the sport by no means noticed the sunshine of day.
Will something come of this new effort from Embracer? That continues to be to be seen. However the firm is eager to broaden its largest IPs, together with “The Lord of the Rings: Center-earth” and “Tomb Raider,” and make investments extra in IPs it considers triple-A, together with “Kingdom Come Deliverance,” “Useless Island,” “Darksiders,” “Remnant,” and the “Metro” collection.
Warhorse, owned by Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer Embracer, is rumored to be growing a Lord of the Rings role-playing recreation. We all know that Crystal Dynamics has two Tomb Raiders video games in growth. Useless Island 3 has already been confirmed, as has Metro 2039. The third recreation within the Remnant collection hasn’t been formally introduced by Gunfire Video games, but it surely feels inevitable given the success of its predecessor.
Wesley is videogameaddicted’s Director of Information. Discover me on Twitter @wyp100. Wesley will be reached at wesley_yinpoole@videogameaddicted.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.