The Dismissal madness will continue in June 2024. One gaming company in particular caused a stir in the current crisis always makes headlines. We are talking about the Swedish Embracer Group. After a failed investment deal with a Saudi investor, numerous development studios closed. These include the Traditional developer VolitionNow another studio has been hit and has had to close with a heavy heart.
Alone in the Dark developers close their doors
The development studio Pieces Interactive is closing down. It was not until March 2024 that they released a new interpretation of Alone in the dark. The survival horror game was published by THQ Nordic, which in turn belongs to Embracer, and was released in our test The original cult classic was released in 1992.
Advertisement
After Sales that fell short of expectationsEmbracer decided to close the studio. On the Website by Pieces Interactive, all that is left is a large banner with the inscription: “2007 – 2024 Thank you for playing”.
The Swedish company acquired the small studio back in 2017 for $350,000. Now, after more than 17 years, the lights are going out. But how did it come to this?
Read also
Advertisement
Alone in the Dark in review: First-class old-school horror
With Alone in the Dark, an absolute classic returns – with two Hollywood stars in the lead roles. Find out why we love the horror in our review.
The story of Alone in the Dark: From scary beautiful to really scary!
We explain why Alone in the Dark was a hit in the beginning but was never able to make a big impact later on.
Why is the Embracer Group doing poorly?
In late summer 2023, it was announced that a planned $2 billion investment deal with Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group had fallen through. Without additional investment, the listed takeover giant was forced to take action.
CEO Lars Wingefors decided to close several studios and lay off thousands of employees. Fishlabs was also a German studio was hit by a large wave of layoffs.
beginning of the year Embracer even sold the Borderlands developers Gearbox in a last attempt to save the company. Finally, the news came to split the group into three independent units. However, this means that many of the originally touted synergy effects are no longer available. At the moment, the future of the group of companies and that of many other development studios remains uncertain.
Source: Pieces Interactive