Embracer Group has announced a new business division, Fellowship Entertainment. This unit will aim to grow fan-favourite franchises like The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider. It will also revive some dormant video game series owned by the company.
In a letter to investors, Lars Wingefors, the founder and chair of Embracer, stated that Fellowship Entertainment will actively seek external partnerships for its well-known intellectual property. This includes Saints Row, Legacy of Kain, Deus Ex, Red Faction, The Mask, Thief, and TimeSplitters. Wingefors indicated that new games in these franchises could be developed by studios outside of the Embracer Group.
Fans of some of these franchises have long believed that they were dead. The Saints Row series, for example, was declared “dead” earlier this year by its original design director, Chris Stockman. He said that Embracer had “zero ability” to do anything with the franchise. The last Saints Row game, a reboot, was released in 2022 to a mixed reception. The game received a 6/10 score from IGN. “Saints Row delivers no shortage of shallow shoot ’em up thrills, but it’s a very familiar and uninspired brand of sandbox fun,” the review stated. The game’s poor reception and low sales led to the closure of the developer, Volition, in 2023.
The Deus Ex series is another franchise that has been dormant. The last game, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, was released in 2016 and developed by Eidos Montreal. Lead actor Elias Toufexis has been vocal about his desire for a new Deus Ex game. He even labelled Embracer “psychopaths” in a post on X, saying, “no Deus Ex because the people in charge are psychopaths.” He later shut down fan speculation that one of his mystery projects in 2026 might be a new Deus Ex sequel. Fans of the series have been waiting for a new game for a decade.
After the release of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Eidos Montreal was tasked with developing Square Enix’s failed Marvel’s Avengers live-service game. They also worked on their own take on Guardians of the Galaxy and continued to support the Tomb Raider franchise. This shift in priorities left Deus Ex on the backburner. Fans were hopeful when Square Enix sold Eidos Montreal and the Deus Ex franchise to Embracer. However, a new game in the series was reportedly worked on for two years before being cancelled in 2024.
TimeSplitters is another franchise that has suffered under Embracer. In 2021, publisher Deep Silver announced the return of the series. The game was being developed by key original members of Free Radical Design, including founders Steve Ellis and David Doak. However, the studio shut down in December 2023, and the game was never released.
The future of these franchises under the new Fellowship Entertainment division remains uncertain. Embracer is keen to expand its largest IPs, which include The Lord of the Rings/Middle-earth and Tomb Raider. They also plan to invest more in what they consider to be their triple-A IPs. This includes Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Dead Island, Darksiders, Remnant, and the Metro series.
There are rumours that Kingdom Come: Deliverance developer Warhorse, which is owned by Embracer, is working on a Lord of the Rings role-playing game. Crystal Dynamics has two Tomb Raiders games in the works. Dead Island 3 is already confirmed, as is Metro 2039.
The success of the Remnant franchise suggests that a third game is likely, although it has not been officially announced by Gunfire Games.
