Back in May 2022 Sweden-based publisher Embracer Group acquired a handful of developers, including Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal, after Square Enix opted to sell off most of its overseas studios. Less than six months later, it has decided to shut down one of those studios outright: Square Enix Montreal. The move comes less than a month after the studio rebranded itself to become Onoma [Thanks, Bloomberg!].
In addition to Onoma, Embracer will also shut down its publishing QA team. All in all the closures are expected to impact about 200 people, though Embracer said it would look to match those affected with open positions elsewhere in the company and on other PC and console projects. Embracer said that of the former Square Enix assets, it intended to focus “future production capacities” on flagship studios like Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal.
Founded in 2011 as Square Enix Montreal, Onoma was originally intended to assist with console and PC projects, but pivoted to mobile development by 2013. Onoma was best known for developing the mobile-based Go series. They were puzzle game adaptations of popular properties then owned by Square Enix. These included Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go, and Deus Ex Go. The studio also developed Hitman Sniper, and as late as 2022 was working on further titles related to Hitman, Tomb Raider, and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
