Embracer Group Is Cutting Jobs in Germany and Austria, but Not Everywhere Else in the World

The Embracer Group's annual report shows how many jobs were cut in Germany and Austria, although there were also countries where the number of employees increased. However, Group CEO Lars Wingefors looks to the future and speaks of more than 70 releases by the end of March 2025.

The Embracer Group has published its annual report. Although many of the topics covered are already well known, especially with regard to the restructuring and the forthcoming split-up, the report provides a deeper insight.

In the past fiscal year, from April 2023 to the end of March 2024, the average number of employees was 11,469 (previous year: 11,956), with 28 percent being women. In Germany, the Swedish group employed 843 people (28 percent women) during this period. Compared to the previous year, 124 jobs were cut, when the proportion of women was 33 percent. Despite these cuts, Germany still ranks third in terms of the number of Embracer employees by country, behind the USA and Canada. No specific information was provided on the number of employees in operating units such as THQ Nordic, Plaion or Deca in the respective countries. No information was provided on the future of THQ Nordic's Piranha Bytes studio.

In Austria, the average number of employees fell from 364 to 312, although the proportion of women increased from 42 to 45 per cent. Data on the number of employees in Switzerland (Plaion AG in St. Gallen) were not given.

"The divestment of Saber also, importantly, enabled us to cease all operations in Russia, lowering business risk overall," Lars Wingefors, co-founder and Group CEO says. In the US, the average number of employees decreased from 2,901 to 2,217, while in Canada the average number of employees increased from 1,107 to 1,213. However, not all countries saw job cuts. The group has more employees than last fiscal year in countries such as France, Denmark, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, China and Italy.

"The cumulative headcount reduction during the programme was 1,583. In addition, approximately 3,000 employees left the Group with the divestment of certain assets of Saber Interactive. The divestment of Gearbox Entertainment was completed on 11 June 2024," the group notes.

Outlook for FY24/25

Lars Wingefors describes the financial situation as solid and looks to the future: "The solid earnings development was primarily driven by a notable growth for Middle-earth Enterprises within the Entertainment & Services segment, as well as a strong margin development for the Mobile Games segment. The Tabletop Games segment had solid organic growth, but with a rather stable earnings development due to product mix. Meanwhile, the performance within the PC/Console Games segment was more mixed, impacted in part by the performance of the assets that were divested during the year."

"As we exit FY 2023/24 and have successfully finalized the restructuring program, we have fewer operative groups, studios and developers, and remain excited about our more focused PC/Console pipeline. Through the coming two years, we expect our updated capital allocation process, with improved standards for new and continued investment, to drive improving ROI from new game releases, as our pipeline increasingly consists of higher quality games. We expect to release more than 70 projects in FY 2024/25, including Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 and Killing Floor 3, as well as at least three important unannounced titles. Beyond FY 2024/25, we continue to see strong growth potential from a higher number of largesized PC/Console projects, based on both established and new IPs."

As announced on April 22, 2024, the Embracer Group initiated the process to separate into three publicly listed entities: Asmodee, "Coffee Stain & Friends" (WT) and "Middle-earth & Friends" (WT). Wingefors: "Importantly, each standalone entity will ultimately be able to fully utilize its own balance sheet, set its own financial and sustainability targets and to optimize their financing structure and capital allocation strategy to enable their growth ambitions. This, in turn, will create value for all stakeholders as it notably improves the conditions for our entrepreneurs and employees to create the best games we can." It is not yet clear which company Plaion, THQ Nordic and Deca will be part of.

Never miss anything from the German, Swiss and Austrian games industry again: subscribe for free to our Daily newsletter and get all news straight to your inbox.