Yesterday’s Eidos Montreal layoffs were due to the cancellation of Wildlands, a game that had been in development since early 2019.
First reported by Insider Gaming in December 2025, the project was known as P11, as it was the 11th project in development at the studio.
According to sources, the game had been struggling for years, with 4 different game engines used throughout development, narrative direction conflicts, and a budget that had exploded to several hundred million. The game’s spiralling budget resulted in several projects at the studio being cancelled, including a new Deus Ex game in January 2024.
Footage of the game, sent to Insider Gaming on the condition that it not go public, shows that Wildlands was an open-world third-person action-adventure game in which players would take control of a character named River. River was part of a group of teenagers called Spiritbounds, who could ward off bad spirits with their magical staffs and ride mythical creatures. River’s companion was a giant-moose-looking animal called ‘Redheart’, which the player could ride to navigate around the map more quickly.
As mentioned in a separate article earlier this year, the game looked awfully similar to the cancelled survival game WiLD by Wild Sheet Studio, so much so, in fact, that I thought they were identical projects. However, WiLD is believed to be entirely shelved.
What’s bizarre about Wildlands’ cancellation is that, according to sources, the game was almost complete. It has recently passed key milestones and was in the debugging phase, with a tentative release date planned for later this year.
However, for whatever reason, Embracer probably went cold on the project and felt like any future investment wouldn’t be recouped. As to why it took Embracer this long, though, remains to be seen.
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Tom Henderson is Insider Gaming's Co-Founder and Editor-In-Chief. When he's not running one of the industry's leading independent video game websites, he's probably playing an FPS like Call of Duty,…
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