THQ Nordic studio that was set to be closed in 2023 somehow escaped the Embracer death spiral and is now working on a new RPG
This is a bit of a weird one: Two years after announcing its planned closure in the aftermath of the Embracer Group's $2 billion implosion, Campfire Cabal revealed today that it "was never shut down" at all, and that it is in fact working on a new addition to the Expeditions series of historical RPGs.
"If you follow the insider news, you are aware that it’s been a rough couple of years in the game industry," the studio wrote. "Investment dried up, studios shut down, countless developers lost their jobs, and games were cancelled left and right."
That's putting it mildly. A quick catch-up on how we got here: Campfire Cabal was founded in September 2022 under Embracer's THQ Nordic label to "focus on high-quality, narrative-driven RPGs." But less than a year later a massive investment deal fell through at the last minute, and Embracer's wings were suddenly and brutally clipped: Hundreds of people were laid off (although none of the executives responsible for the mess, of course) and numerous studios closed, including—apparently—Campfire Cabal.
"It is no secret that Embracer Group has recently entered restructuring," creative director Jonas Wæver wrote in August 2023. "As part of this restructuring process, THQ Nordic has been told to close Campfire Cabal. This decision was not related to the work we've been doing at the studio but was made from a purely financial standpoint."
Wæver said at the time that studio management and THQ Nordic "have not given up on Campfire Cabal," and that "we are still pursuing our options for finding a good resolution to this situation," although to my reading that came off almost entirely as forced optimism, especially given that his announcement was literally entitled "Studio Closure." And yet, here we are.
"Though we did have to say goodbye to many of our colleagues, the studio survived and a compact team continued the project we had started in 2022. At the end of March of 2025, we received the green light to scale back up and transition into full production," Campfire Cabal wrote today.
"We are extremely grateful that there were people within the group who fought to keep us alive through the turmoil, and that we can now emerge on the other side with renewed vigour."
Campfire Cabal also finally confirmed today that it's working on a new Expeditions RPG, something previously assumed but never officially announced, and that it was responsible for a surprise Expeditions: Rome patch that dropped in November 2024. Details weren't shared but, like previous games in the series, "it’s set in a new period of our history and in a new part of the world."
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