Embracer Group Reportedly Lays Off Half Of 3D Realms And Irongate Slipworks Staff

Embracer Group continues to downsize its studios as Slipgate Ironworks and its subsidiary 3D Realms reportedly gets hit with a massive round of layoffs. The news comes by way of a tweet from 3D Realms founder and current Apogee Entertainment studio head Scot Miller, who revealed that at least half of the studios’ employees were laid off, including core developers.

“This one hits me hard because I worked with the new 3DR from 2014 up until when they were bought out by Embracer 2.5 yrs ago,” Miller tweeted. “Quite depressing that this keeps happening."

3D Realms is an offshoot of Miller’s Apogee Entertainment and is best known as the studio behind first-person shooter games Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D, and the failed Duke Nukem Forever. The studio was acquired in 2014 by Danish investment firm SDN Invest who owns Interceptor Entertainment which was later renamed as Slipgate Ironworks. Both Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms was then acquired by Embracer in 2021 and was put under its Saber Interactive umbrella.

The number of affected employees wasn’t revealed, but that should now put the Embracer job toll at somewhere around 1,000 employees over the past six months. As you probably already know, the layoffs and restructuring at Embracer are the result of a failed $2 billion partnership deal earlier this year which caused the Swedish video game holding company’s stock prices to plummet after several years of unprecedented growth as it bought out one studio after another before everything came crashing down.

Embracer has yet to confirm the layoffs, but several 3D Realms and Slipgate Ironworks employees have already revealed that they were let go on X.

Several sources have told me this bad news... Sorry to hear about another drop of the axe by Embracer Group, this time landing on Danish 3D Realms. A lot of people, including core devs, will be looking for work asap. Hopefully they land jobs soon. This one hits me hard because I…

— Scott Miller - Apogee/3DR Founder☢️ (@ScottApogee) December 14, 2023