Embracer have laid off 8% of their global workforce since their "restructuring" began

Sony has today confirmed around 900 PlayStation employees — or around eight per cent of its workforce — are being laid off in order to «future ready ourselves to set the business up for what lies ahead». As a result of the downsizing, PlayStation's own London Studio is being closed completely and Firesprite will be reduced in size. The staff reductions will also hit Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, and Guerrilla Games. Some unannounced games have been cancelled.

It’s fair to say that before Red Dead Redemption 2 came out in 2018, most gamers hadn’t heard of Roger Clark. Six years, 61 million sales, and numerous awards later, the 45-year-old Irish-American actor can afford to be picky with roles. His performance as Arthur Morgan, the protagonist of Rockstar’s Wild West epic, is considered by some as one of the greatest in video game history. But Roger’s overnight stardom came after five grueling years in Rockstar’s New York motion capture studio and a contract that gave him the kind of financial security most jobbing actors only dream of. In truth, Arthur Morgan has remained part of Roger’s life ever since. Indeed, he is set to (kind of) reprise the role by narrating the upcoming audiobook of ‘Red Dead's History,’ an exploration of America’s violent past through the lens of the Red Dead Redemption games written by American history professor Tore Olsson. Olsson, by the way, teaches the world’s first Red Dead American history class at the University of Tennessee.

Swedish gaming company Embracer Group AB will sell one of its largest subsidiaries, Saber Interactive, to a group of private investors in a deal worth up to $500 million (roughly Rs. 4,142 crore), according to a person familiar with the transaction.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake developer Saber Interactive has reportedly left embattled parent company Embracer in a $500 million deal to become a privately owned company.

In Shakespeare's Anthony And Cleopatra, said famous woman says "Give to a gracious message an host of tongues, but let ill tidings tell themselves when they be felt." I.e., when you have good news you can go round the houses, but if you have bad news - like sending an all-hands email to the staff at EA to let them know that, less than a year after the last round of layoffs, a further 5% of them are getting booted - then you should just come out and say it as quickly and simply as possible.

Cloud Imperium Games has reportedly laid off an unknown number of staff.

Australian wildlife AI project receives $750,000 boost for wildlife identification; Abridge raises $150 mn in series C for AI clinical documentation tools; Tyler Perry halts $800 mn studio expansion amid AI job loss concerns; AI generated car free city images boost support for sustainable policies in the US- this and more in our daily roundup. Let us take a look.

Game developer Build a Rocket Boy has unfortunately announced a number of layoffs, which will affect the developer globally. 

Embracer Group, the holdings company that spent years scooping up as many gaming properties and development teams as possible, has had to reduce its unsustainable size, cutting jobs, closing studios, and shelving projects. Last summer, the company announced its restructuring plan, and has now confirmed the figures pertaining to layoffs and more, and it's not pretty.

Following the theatrical release of, Euphoria star Sydney Sweeney took to Instagram to share several set photos from the production of Sony Pictures’ newest Spider-Man spin-off.

The wave of layoffs that has happened over the past year in the video game industry is well-documented. Some of the biggest culprits are Embracer Group, which has laid off nearly 1,400 workers across several of its studios since the start of a restructuring program last July, and Microsoft, which laid off 1,900 developers across Xbox, Bethesda, and Activision Blizzard in January. After relative silence around these layoffs, leadership at both companies finally tried to offer more transparently into what happened.

If you’ve paid attention to gaming news throughout the first six weeks of 2024, you’ll know that one of the biggest ongoing stories is that there have been TONS of layoffs across the industry within those first six weeks. As we reported in January, there have already been over 5500 jobs lost so far, and in all of 2023, there were 10,000. Given other reports about layoffs, downsizing, restructuring, and so on, it will likely hit over 10K in losses before too long. That brings us to The Embracer Group because they are a company that has helped with those layoff numbers, but their CEO defends what they’ve done.