Good news, folks, Embracer Group is ending its restructuring. As you know, the $2 billion deal has collapsed, shutting down Volition and Free Radical, laying off more than 1,300 developers, canceling the new Deus Ex game, and selling off studios including Saber Interactive and most recently Gearbox, the developer of Borderlands were sold off. [As reported by RPS, the Gearbox sale represents the final aftershock of the earthquake leveling the city that was Embracer's restructuring, CEO Lars Wingefors explained on an investment conference call about the Gearbox sale.

"We finished our restructuring plan at the end of March, and the restructuring of Gearbox was part of that plan. Now we are approached, not every day, but every week, by companies that want to acquire certain assets within the group. Because they are a very important part of the group and for the group's shareholders in the future."

Wingefors said Embracer's current plan to "increase profitability and cash flow" is to "make better products and games. Personally, I thought that increasing profitability by making games was already a sensible and obvious way for game developers to make money in the gaming industry. Incredibly, Mr. Wingforth said on the investment conference call that Embracer is once again ..... .He had already answered a question about whether there were plans to start Embracing.

"I think it is premature to start talking about restarting the M&A [merger and acquisition] engine," Wingforth said. 'We are now in the later stages of considering the future of the group, and that is our primary focus and priority.'

That "asset" is the thousands of developers still working at Embracer, who have to work on making games in the aftermath of the layoffs of several colleagues, because they want to understand even a fraction of the human cost of widespread layoffs like the ones Embracer has implemented. If you want to understand even a fraction of the human cost of widespread layoffs like those at Embracer, PC Gamer recently took a deep dive into the impact of industry-wide layoffs over the past 12 months. Veteran developer Michelle Hebert commented on the matter, "In the past, there were plenty of landing spots, and studios responded by trying to pull talent out." This time, she feels, "they are not there because everyone is drowning.