While noting that the Kingdom Come: Deliverance studio could be working on their own take on the acclaimed fantasy universe, Crystal Dynamics is allegedly the developer of this particular project. This is according to “those close to the game’s development,” but the studio and the Embracer Group declined to comment.

Apparently meant to compete with Hogwarts Legacy, the project is allegedly being developed with $100 million in funding from Abu Dhabi Investment Office. It’s reportedly a “bit away” as of now (same as last September), even though development has seemingly been ongoing for a while.

Of course, Crystal Dynamics has other projects in the works, such as Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis and Tomb Raider: Catalyst. The former is launching this year and offers a retelling of the series’ first title on Unreal Engine 5. The latter, out next year, takes place years after the events of Tomb Raider: Underworld, and promises to be the franchise’s biggest adventure yet.

Is it possible that the studio ramps up production on The Lord of the Rings RPG after Legacy of Atlantis or perhaps after Catalyst is out? Time will tell, but it would be interesting to see how it tackles Tolkien’s work.

A key thing to note is that, at the time, Embracer Group and Revenge were said to be involved in this project. Warhorse Studios is a subsidiary of PLAION, which in turn is part of the larger Embracer Group umbrella. It also helps that the latter holds the game adaptation rights for The Lord of the Rings since 2022.

The report from back in September has indicated that development is being funded at least partially by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), which has put $100 million into the project. The deal was seemingly in the works for an entire year prior to the report. Embracer Group itself hasn’t yet made any comment on this project, noting that, as “a general rule, we do not comment on rumors or speculation.” The report also indicated that The Lord of the Rings game would primarily “compete with Hogwarts Legacy,” in offering an open-world title based on a major fantasy IP.

If these reports turn out to be true, Warhorse’s take on The Lord of the Rings might end up being the most ambitious game that the franchise has seen. The closest we’ve gotten to anything of this scale with Tolkien’s works was 2007’s MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online. Since then, adaptations of the franchise have mostly revolved around more focused experiences that revolve around one or two of its aspects.

We’ve seen it adapted into a wide variety of genres, from real-time strategy games like the Battle for Middle-earth franchise, to MOBAs. The 2010s also saw the now-defunct developer Monolith Productions try its hand at open-world The Lord of the Rings titles with Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War. While impressive in their own right, especially thanks to the critically-acclaimed Nemesis system, the two titles wouldn’t really be comparable to one made by Warhorse Studios—a studio known for its systems-based approach to game design.

The most recent game based on Tolkien’s work was Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game, which came out in July 2025 on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch. Rather than presenting players with a grand adventure, however, Tales of the Shire instead focused on the relaxed life of a Hobbit, allowing players to live in the Shire as they made friends and joined the local community.

2023 also saw the release of The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria—a co-op-oriented game that put players in the shoes of four Dwarves who have decided to visit Khazad-dûm in the Fourth Age. In our review, we gave it a five out of ten, praising its set-up, atmosphere, lore and gameplay loop while criticising its unwieldy combat and lackluster animations.

“Honestly, I think the franchise is dead, unfortunately,” wrote Stockman on Discord. “I get the sense that Embracer has zero ability to do anything with it. I wish things were different. I tried my best to offer a path forward but they’ve ghosted me.”

Saints Row—the original one—was released all the way back in 2006 as an Xbox 360 exclusive. While still considered a niche entry in the burgeoning open-world urban action game at the time, it grew enough of a fan following to warrant sequels that would go on to become much more popular. Sales of the first Saints Row had also likely benefited from Rockstar Games not having released Grand Theft Auto 4 yet.

The follow-up, simply titled Saints Row 2, would see a much wider multiplatform release, and introduced the series’ penchant for goofy comedy and character customization. It would release in the same year as GTA 4, and while Rockstar’s game would see plenty of critical acclaim thanks to its more serious tone and strong writing and characters, Saints Row 2 would become a haven for fans of the kind of action and tone that was last seen in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Saints Row: The Third—released in 2011—would further up the ante when it comes to comedy, introducing an entirely new city and a story revolving around the Third Street Saints’ rise to power in Steelport. In 2013, Saints Row 4 would essentially become a superhero game, while still maintaining much of the gameplay and tone of its predecessor.

2022 would see an attempted reboot of the Saints Row franchise that, unfortunately, was widely criticized for its repetitive side activities, bad enemy AI, and poor writing. Since then, the series has remained largely quiet.

A report from back in September has indicated that the Saints Row reboot was originally planned to be a full-fledged sequel, picking things up where Saints Row: The Third left off and entirely ignoring the events of Saints Row 4. The game was set to feature many returning characters, including protagonist The Boss, and side characters like Shaundi, Pierce and Johnny Gat, with the primary setting for its open world being Santo Ileso.

Back in November, Stockman had expressed his belief that Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be “the biggest game, probably of all time.” He went on to note that the only way Rockstar Games could see any real competition for its title is if the studio has a huge misstep.

“If it comes out and it’s terrible, God forbid the industry, oh my gosh, right? It’s E.T. all over again, but worse because of the budgets,” he said. “It’s going to be a complete disaster. I don’t expect that to happen, but, if it is, oh my.”

According to GameFile, Kotick has recently filed a response, with his lawyers denying this allegation. Rather, Kotick and his lawyers are now alleging that Sjunde AP-Fonden filed its lawsuit “to exert collateral harm on Activision” and help Embracer Group.

“This Delaware lawsuit was apparently aimed to help pave the way for Embracer to increase its foothold in the California market at the expense of Activision, making it more difficult for Activision to recruit talent and expand through [mergers and acquisitions] activity of the sort that Activision relied on to grow historically,” said Kotick’s legal team.

This newest allegation originates from the fact that Sjunde AP-Fonden’s view chairman Emma Ihre also served in an executive role at Embracer Group at the time. The lawsuit itself was a bid to help “Embracer’s desire to boost sales of its games while leaving Activision hamstrung in the development of its own games that competed against Embracer’s titles.”

Responding to this through its own statement, Embracer Group has denied Kotick’s latest allegations. A representative for the company said that it was “humbled by Mr Kotick’s remark” about its competing with Activision. “Nevertheless, perhaps difficult to accept for Mr Kotick, but we did not and do not need any help from a Swedish pension fund in competing with Activision,” continued the company representative.

“Thus, in short, there was no coordination or collaboration between Embracer and [Sjunde AP-Fonden] relating to any of Mr Kotick’s statements. No agenda or instructions were directed from Embracer via Emma Ihre or directly to [Sjunde AP-Fonden].”

While Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard was called into question by several regulatory bodies from all around the world, including the US Federal Trade Commission, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority, and the European Commission, the lawsuit by Sjunde AP-Fonden revolved around allegations of Activision Blizzard suffering from systemic issues with harassment and sexual misconduct. One report claimed that Kotick himself was involved in several instances of harassment and misconduct, with it stating that the CEO was not only aware of it happening, but also went as far as to protect abusers and withhold knowledge about these instances from the company’s board.

While Kotick would stay on in his executive position for quite some time following these reports, he eventually announced his departure from the company following the completion of its acquisition by Microsoft. Amidst this, 2022 also saw Activision settle its sexual harassment lawsuit, with the settlement amount said to be valued around $18 million.

The company would also sign an agreement with California’s Civil Rights Department as part of the latter’s 2021 lawsuit that would result in it paying $54 million for allegations of systemic sexual harassment and racial discrimination, as well as unequal pay for women.

“…no Deus Ex because the people in charge are psychopaths,” Toufexis wrote when asked if any of the projects he was working on were related to the seminal immersive sim franchise. He did, however, confirm that he is working with Bungie on Marathon. It’s worth noting that the Embracer Group owns the rights to Deus Ex, though Toufexis didn’t call them out by name.

The last development on the franchise came up in January 2024, when a rumour indicated that a new title was under development for two years before ultimately being cancelled. It was allegedly developed by Eidos Montreal, which had also made Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. It is also worth noting that whether the cancelled title was a sequel to Mankind Divided, a reboot or a remake is unknown.

April 2025 also saw some rumours surrounding the franchise pop up again, this time with Eidos Montreal “actively pitching” a new game in the franchise to “external partners and publishers.” These pitches apparently didn’t see much success, unfortunately, with the project noted as “too niche” and not worth the financial risk.

While Adam Jensen’s story has largely been abandoned after the 2016 release of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, the original Deus Ex is slated to make a comeback in the form of a remastered release by Aspyr Media. Originally planned for release in February, Deus Ex Remastered has since been delayed, with Aspyr noting that the decision was to “better meet fan expectations and deliver the best possible experience for players.”

Deus Ex is a series of cyberpunk immersive sims that have players take on the control of JC Denton in the 2000 original, Alex Denton in 2003’s Deus Ex: Invisible War, and Adam Jensen in 2011’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution and 2016’s Mankind Divided. The titles depict a world decades in a future ravaged by war, disease and income disparity, where body and mind augmentations have become commonplace enough that you can see people from all walks of life using them.

The main stories often involve the protagonist taking on what starts as a relatively simple mission, but then quickly evolves into something much larger, with several layers of conspiracies involved in just about every aspect. The original Deus Ex was widely praised for the level of freedom it allowed players in how they could tackle missions, while both Human Revolution and Mankind Divided saw acclaim thanks to their efforts at world-building as well as their stories and characters.

“This round of lay-offs is due to two individual things,” said Henderson in a recent video. “First of all, [Eidos Montreal] are working internally on quite a big project.” He went on to describe this big project as an open world third-person action adventure title, with the team working on this being the same one that did Shadow of the Tomb Raider. This game, he noted, has been in development since 2019, and is known internally as P11 – marking it as the eleventh project in development at Eidos Montreal.

Henderson then confirmed that the studio is now on P22, which indicates that 11 different projects had been conceptualised since 2019. It is worth noting that, since then, Eidos Montreal has only released a single title – 2021’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. This means that the studio has worked on at least 10 other projects in the time since then without having released any game since 2021.

The lay-offs, Henderson noted, were specifically related to P11, with the studio now beginning to ramp down the project’s headcount. “So you know like conceptualisation, and all of the systems and all that kind of stuff has been complete and they’re gearing up for beta and that game is scheduled tor release next year,” explained Henderson.

The Lord of the Rings game, according to Henderson, was the other big project in the works at Eidos Montreal. This comes down to the fact that the studio’s parent company, Embracer Group, has the rights to make games based on The Lord of the Rings. “So it seems like they’re just trying to cash in on that particular IP,” he said. “I don’t blame them or whatever, but it was related to that project. It didn’t really go far in development. It was a Lord of the Rings card game with like a Telltale spin, like a story spin on it is how it was described to me. The cancellations were related to that particular project.”

Henderson also reiterated the fact that Eidos Montreal had some of its employees – numbered at “around” 20 – working on Kojima Productions’ upcoming horror title OD.

Since the lay-offs at Eidos Montreal, reports started coming up of some of the projects that the studio had worked on before they got cancelled. These reports cited the CV of one of the now-former employees at the studio, with one of the more interesting cancelled projects having been a reboot of Legacy of Kain. However, this project was noted as having been cancelled several years ago, shortly after the studio was acquired by its current parent company Embracer Group. This cancelled project was noted as not being too far into development before being cancelled.

Other details about this project included an emphasis on melee-centric combat, as well as parkour for exploration. While the CVs haven’t outright named this project, Insider Gaming’s report confirms that the project was indeed a reboot of Legacy of Kain. It is also worth noting that the reboot’s development wasn’t really affected by the recent lay-offs. Rather, it had been cancelled several years ago, shortly after the studio was acquired by Embracer Group.

The report also notes that the reboot wasn’t particularly far into development, with only it only having been developed for a single year before its cancellation. Since then, the IP has been handed to Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics, and the fate of the IP since then is currently unknown.

As for the current state of Eidos Montreal, the studio is reportedly working on a major project of its own, with development on it having started all the way back in 2019. The project has been noted as having “hundreds of millions of dollars” invested into it, and while the report indicates that it won’t end up recouping these costs, the investments are considered major enough to not cancel the project outright.

The recent lay-offs at Eidos Montreal have affected an unknown number of employees at the studio. It largely came to light thanks to employees like former gameplay director Samuel Daher confirming the fact through posts on social media. “Hey there! Was working at Eidos, loved it and would have stayed, but times are difficult,” posted Daher. “I’m eager to find a new professional home to drive design on new productions.”

However, this was only the second round of lay-offs to have hit Eidos Montreal this year. Back in April, the studio had announced that it was letting go of 75 of its employees. These lay-offs were described at the time as having happened because it couldn’t find spots for the employees in other development teams across the studio.

“Today, we informed our studio staff that we are going to let go up to 75 valuable members, as one of our mandates is coming to an end,” announced the studio earlier this year. “It is not a reflection of their dedication or skills, but unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity to entirely reallocate them to our other ongoing projects and services.”

“These very talented, highly experienced experts are going to enter the employment market, and we are working to support them through this transition.”

Eidos Montreal has had a rocky period of time for a few years now, with its last major title being Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Since then, the company has been working as a support studio on projects like the upcoming Fable and Grounded 2.

The publisher is slated to maintain its current organisational structure after gaining its independence, which also means that Yoon Im will continue in his role as the publisher’s CEO. Along with this, the company has confirmed that it is “accelerating preparations” for a slate of unannounced upcoming games across the AA market as well as through indie publishing partnership.

“This milestone marks a major new chapter for Arc Games,” said Im in the press release announcing the company’s independence. “We appreciate our time being part of Embracer Group and the accomplishments achieved since the company’s inception over 15 years ago. These experiences have shaped who we are today. “

“As an independent publisher, we are now positioned to more fully pursue our vision—collaborating with exceptional developers worldwide and bringing standout games to market. 2026 is already shaping up to be one of the most ambitious and innovative years in our history, and we are excited for what lies ahead.”

Arc Games had originally started out as Perfect World Entertainment when it was founded all the way back in 2008. Since then, the company had made a name for itself thanks to its efforts in publishing several free-to-play MMORPGs, like Neverwinter and Star Trek Online. Over the last decade, the company has also taken a more active role in releasing AA titles, like Gunfire Games’ Remnant 2 from back in 2023, the Torchlight franchise, and most recently, co-op dungeon crawling RPG Fellowship. The company has also played a hand in the release of indie titles like Have a Nice Death and Frosthaven.

Embracer Group’s decision to divest itself of Arc Games and Cryptic Studios was described by CEO Phil Rogers as being a move to improve its cash flow while still hanging on to some of its core IP. Interestingly, however, Embracer had hoped to hang on to Fellowship as part of its original plans.

“This transaction supports our key priorities by strengthening our focus on strategic assets and core IPs in Embracer while improving profitability and free cash flow,” said Rogers in the now-outdated announcement. “The deal also allows online multiplayer game Fellowship, developed by a talented external team in Stockholm, to find a great home within Coffee Stain Group. I would like to thank the teams at Arc and Cryptic for their hard work over the past four years and wish them all the best as we are confident they will thrive and develop in the years ahead.”

As for Arc Games, the company’s most recently-published title was Chief Rebel’s Fellowship from back in October. The title tasks players with grouping up with three others, each playing a specific role as they take on dungeons that are constantly escalating in difficulty. The title has been described by the developer as a new take on the typical endgame content provided by MMORPGs, but without the grinding that one has to partake in before getting to the endgame.

A statement by Embracer Group CEO Phil Rogers noted that the major reason for this deal was so that the company could improve its cash flow while still hanging on to its main priorities of maintaining core IPs.

“This transaction supports our key priorities by strengthening our focus on strategic assets and core IPs in Embracer while improving profitability and free cash flow,” said Rogers. “The deal also allows online multiplayer game Fellowship, developed by a talented external team in Stockholm, to find a great home within Coffee Stain Group. I would like to thank the teams at Arc and Cryptic for their hard work over the past four years and wish them all the best as we are confident they will thrive and develop in the years ahead.”

The new owner of Arc Games – Project Golden Arc – is comprised of the company’s own management team. Among the games it has published are Remnant: From The Ashes and Remnant 2, Torchlight, Hyper Light Breaker, and most recently, Fellowship. Cryptic Studios has also worked with Arc Games in the past since it has worked on the Arc Games-published MMORPGs Star Trek Online and Neverwinter.

While the long-term fates of all of these games are currently unknown, one of the few titles to which Embracer Group is holding on to the rights for – Fellowship – will continue its development by studio Chief Rebel. The title, released as an Early Access game on Steam back in October, will see continued development under the stewardship of the studio, with its core development team numbering in at around 35 employees.

Embracer Group had announced that it would be spinning off Coffee Stain Group back in May. As a result of this spin-off, Embracer Group will see its name changed to Fellowship Entertainment. The spun off Coffee Stain Group will take with it 250 employees, along with a host of studios, including Tuxedo Labs, Ghost Ship, and Amplifier Game Investment. The spun-off company will also take quite a few IPs with it, including Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Simulator, and Satisfactory, among others.

Once Embracer Group officially turns into Fellowship Entertainment, the company plans on transforming its business into one that can handle game development and publishing, as well as the development of new IPs that can then be spun off into transmedia properties like merchandise, comics and film. The company will retain ownership of companies like 4A Games, Aspyr Media, Crystal Dynamics, Dambuster Studios, and Deca Games, among many others. In the meantime, also check out the company having announced earlier this year that co-founder Lars Wingefors was stepping down as CEO.

“This morning I was part of the layoffs at Amazon Games, alongside my incredibly talented peers on New World and our fledgling Lord of the Rings game (y’all would have loved it),” wrote Amrine in the since-deleted post. Amazon has yet to make any definitive statement about the fate of the project.

An MMORPG based on The Lord of the Rings was first announced all the way back in May 2023, and was being developed by the team behind New World. The title was slated to be part of a licensing agreement that was signed between Amazon Games and Middle-earth Enterprises, which in turn is owned by Embracer Group.

Few details about the project had been confirmed, aside from the fact that it would feature the stories of the four core books from The Lord of the Rings – The Hobbit, Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. The title was also slated to feature a persistent world where players could explore Middle-earth to quite an extent.

The cancellation of the project likely stems from the fact that Amazon is laying off more than 14,000 of its employees across various divisions, including its gaming studios. In an internal memo, the company said that its plans for game development going forward will revolve around “casual and AI-focused games”. It had also noted that development on the Tomb Raider title by Crystal Dynamics is also continuing.

Alongside the employees affected by the lay-offs, one of the bigger casualties of this has been Amazon Game Studios’ announcement that New World: Aeternum will no longer be getting any more content. The recently-released Season 10 and Nighthaven will serve as the final bit of content made for the MMORPG, and the Rise of the Angry Earth expansion has also been made free to PC players.

“As New World recognizes its fourth anniversary since launching on PC, we reflect on an incredible journey shaped by our dedicated player community,” wrote Amazon Game Studios in its announcement. “Your feedback and passion have been instrumental in evolving Aeternum into the world it is today, and our team is deeply grateful for this shared adventure. After four years of steady content updates and a major new console release, we’ve reached a point where it is no longer sustainable to continue supporting the game with new content updates.”

While there might not be any more content coming to New World: Aeternum, the studio has made assurances that the servers for the MMORPG will remain live until the end of 2026. Any changes to these plans are also slated to be announced with at least six months of notice provided to players.