Eidos-Montréal Cancels $100 Million Game "Wildlands" Amidst Major Layoffs and Uncertain Future

The story of global issues at the Canadian studio Eidos-Montréal continues.

Earlier we reported that the developer of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy launched the third wave of layoffs this year, in which 124 employees and the head of the studio, David Anfossi, who had led it since 2013, lost their jobs.

But it turned out that the studio made another huge sacrifice.

What is known

Authoritative gaming insider Tom Henderson reported that Eidos-Montréal canceled a game that had two working titles — P11 and Wildlands. It had been in development since 2019, and its production budget had grown 'to hundreds of millions of dollars'.

According to sources, there was no single vision for the game within the team, and its concept was constantly changing. During development, the authors tried four game engines and were dissatisfied with the results each time. The AAA game was canceled in the final stages of production when all the main mechanics had been tested, and a release could be expected soon, but the reason for the cancellation is still unknown.

Henderson received screenshots of Wildlands but did not share them due to a non-disclosure agreement. He describes the game as an adventure action with a third-person view, featuring a young protagonist named River who possesses supernatural abilities and fights evil spirits with friends. Special attention was given to River's companion — a giant riding moose named Redhart.

The assertion that Eidos-Montréal is close to closure would not be an exaggeration. Currently, the team is helping Playground Games with the Fable reboot, but what will happen next with the studio remains a big question.

Source: Insider Gaming