Embracer closes Campfire Cabal, future of the Expeditions series up in the air

Studio was planned to take over the tactical RPG series

Media giant Embracer Group has closed down Campfire Cabal, one of the game developers under its umbrella, according to a LinkedIn post made by a former employee (via Twitter) of the studio. Campfire Cabal had only been established in September 2022 under the leadership of Jonas Wæver, who previously worked for Logic Artists, the studio behind the Expeditions series.

Campfire Cabal was supposed to take over any future iterations of the tactical RPG series, but with its closure the franchise’s future is up in the air. Expeditions: Rome, the latest game under the brand, was the most successful iteration yet, garnering critical and popular acclaim for its gameplay as well as narrative elements.

In the title, you play the role of a Roman legate commanding their own legion in wars around the Mediterranean, building up your special task force of strong fighters to do missions with, which contain your typical XCOM-style tactical turn-based battles.

Expeditions: Rome is the latest and most successful entry into Logic Artists' series.

Logic Artists

Embracer is cutting spending in the form of a big restructuring process at the moment, a reverse of its shopping spree policy from the previous years, which included Tomb Raider and some of the publishing rights to the Lord of the Rings IP, among many other assets.

In 2022, a mysterious business deal worth around $2 billion to Embracer fell through at the last minute, which is likely one of the reasons for the company now having to cut back costs.

Embracer has made deals with New Line Cinema about new Lord of the Rings movies as well as with Amazon about a new Lord of the Rings MMO that the company hopes will bring in more money in the future. Recent release Remnant 2, which was published by Embracer’s Gearbox, was a surprise hit and probably helped things a little bit as well. The company further expects the upcoming PayDay 3 and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine to be commercial successes, according to its latest financial report.