Embracer Group is spinning off Fellowship Leisure, a new enterprise unit designed to increase The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider, in addition to breathe new life into some of the corporate’s dormant online game franchises.
In a letter to investors, Lars Wingefors, founder and chair of Embracer, stated the brand new Fellowship Leisure will “extra actively be exploring” exterior partnerships round its well-known IP, corresponding to Saints Row, Legacy of Kain, Deus Ex, Purple Faction, The Masks, Thief, TimeSplitters.
The suggestion is we may even see new video games in these franchises, developed by studios that aren’t underneath the Embracer umbrella. Wingefors didn’t outright affirm any new video games or announce a timeframe for extra information, however there’s now hope for some of these franchises the place followers thought there was none.
Take Saints Row, for instance. Earlier this 12 months, Saints Row 1 design director Chris Stockman stated he believed the collection was “useless” and that Embracer had “zero potential” to do something with the franchise. The one-time Grand Theft Auto competitor hasn’t seen a new entry since 2022’s ill-fated reboot, Saints Row. It obtained a blended reception from followers, with IGN’s Saints Row assessment returning a 6/10. “Saints Row delivers no scarcity of shallow shoot ’em up thrills, however it’s a very acquainted and uninspired model of sandbox enjoyable,” we stated on the time. Gross sales had been depressed, and developer Volition shut down in 2023.
Then there’s Deus Ex. Earlier this 12 months, Deus Ex lead actor Elias Toufexis branded Embracer “psychopaths,” because the wait continued for a new entry within the dormant stealth motion collection. In a post on X, Toufexis laid out his work schedule for 2026, prompting Deus Ex followers to counsel that one of his thriller tasks may need been a long-awaited new Deus Ex sequel — one thing Toufexis was fast to close down. “…no Deus Ex as a result of the individuals in cost are psychopaths,” Toufexis wrote.
Toufexis has been vocal in assist of a new Deus Ex sport materializing over time, although it has now been a decade because the arrival of 2016’s Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Developed by Eidos Montreal, the sport arrived on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to constructive evaluations.
However somewhat than develop a observe up, the following few years noticed Eidos Montreal put to work on Sq. Enix’s failed Marvel’s Avengers live-service sport, in addition to its personal tackle Guardians of the Galaxy, alongside its persevering with function as a assist studio for the Tomb Raider franchise. With these franchises taking precedence, Deus Ex fell by the wayside.
Fan pleasure for a new Deus Ex was rekindled after Sq. Enix offered Eidos Montreal — and the Deus Ex franchise — to writer Embracer, and certainly a new sport within the collection was reportedly labored on for 2 years. Alas, this challenge was reported to have been canned in 2024 amid Embracer’s widespread restructuring.
TimeSplitters, too, suffered a sport cancelation and studio closure. In 2021, then writer Deep Silver lastly introduced the return of TimeSplitters, developed by a quantity of key unique members of Free Radical Design, together with founders Steve Ellis and David Doak, at a new studio arrange in Nottingham, UK. Nevertheless, in December 2023, Free Radical shut down amid the Embracer restructure and the sport by no means noticed the sunshine of day.
Will something come of this new push from Embracer? It stays to be seen. However the firm is eager to increase its largest IPs, which incorporates The Lord of the Rings/Center-earth and Tomb Raider, and make investments extra in what it considers to be its triple-A IPs, namechecking Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Lifeless Island, Darksiders, Remnant, and the Metro collection.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer Warhorse, which is owned by Embracer, has simply confirmed it is engaged on a Lord of the Rings RPG in addition to a new Kingdom Come sport. We all know Crystal Dynamics has two Tomb Raiders video games within the works. Lifeless Island 3 is already confirmed, as is Metro 2039. A 3rd sport within the Remnant franchise has not been formally introduced by Gunfire Video games, however it seems like an inevitability given the success of the final one.
Wesley is Director, Information at IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You’ll be able to attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.