Embracer Group shuts down Campfire Cabal as part of its cost-cutting restructuring program

Campfire Cabal has been shut down less than a year after its formation. The studio fell victim to a business restructuring currently underway at its parent company Embracer Group.

What happened?

• On August 4, former Campfire Cabal executive producer Bruno-Christian Belibou posted on LinkedIn that Embracer Group had decided to lay off “every person in my studio” in June (spotted by Twitter user Timur222).
• “While we have tried a lot of things to turn this around and find a new home for this team, time was our biggest enemy to do so,” Belibou wrote.
• Campfire Cabal soon issued an official statement, saying that the studio’s closure was part of a business restructuring at Embracer Group announced in June.
• “This decision was not related to the work we’ve been doing at the studio but was made from a purely financial standpoint,” the statement reads. “We want to make it clear that our management and the rest of the team have not given up on Campfire Cabal yet, and neither have our friends at THQ Nordic.”
• According to Campfire Cabal creative director Jonas Wæver, the studio will continue to pursue option to resolve the situation and find a way to keep the company alive in any form.
• Campfire Cabal was formed in September 2022 as a subsidiary of THQ Nordic. The team included several industry veterans who worked on games like Expeditions: Rome, Hitman, and Warface.

How is Embracer Group’s restructuring going?

• In May, the Swedish holding company’s stock nearly halved after a $2 billion deal collapsed. It initially planned to allocate the money towards covering already capitalized costs for various large-budget games.
• Soon after, Embracer announced a restructuring that will last until March 2024. The goal is to transform the company from its “current heavy-investment-mode to a highly cash-flow generative business.”
• According to CEO Lars Wingefors, the process will include closing some of its internal studios, freezing some games currently in development, cutting non-development costs, and revising the review process for current and new titles in terms of investment required.
• Last month, Embracer Group raised over $180 million through a direct share issue, saying that it will help the company achieve certain goals of its restructuring program.