When a company that owns Tomb Raider, Borderlands, Dead Island, and The Lord of the Rings games feels the need to change CEOs, something is profoundly off-kilter. On 1 August 2025, Swedish mega-publisher Embracer Group will do exactly that, swapping out co-founder Lars Wingefors for Phil Rogers—the executive who has shepherded Crystal Dynamics and Eidos since the late 2000s.
How We Got Here: A $2 Billion Implosion and 1,400 Lost Jobs
Wingefors spent the past decade turning Embracer into gaming’s most voracious acquirer. In just five years, he bought 70+ studios, amassing a 17,000-person empire spread across 40 countries. The spree came crashing down in May 2023 when a mysterious $2 billion financing deal fell apart at the eleventh hour, triggering a brutal nine-month restructuring that shuttered Volition (Saints Row), Free Radical (TimeSplitters), and laid off 1,400 employees. Remaining teams endured constant uncertainty, and investors punished the stock.
By early 2025, Embracer had sold Gearbox and Saber Interactive, spun off Coffee Stain, and announced yet another carve-out for its Middle-earth division. Confidence in Wingefors’ leadership cratered; even he admitted much of the criticism was “probably fair”.
Why Phil Rogers?
- Operating-Level Credibility – Rogers ran Eidos during its pre-Square Enix days, then headed Square Enix’s entire Western operation (Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montreal, IO Interactive) from 2009-2022. He knows how to ship blockbuster AAA on time, on budget, and with Disney-tier IP guardians breathing down his neck.
- Cultural Bridge – He has already spent two years as CEO of the Crystal Dynamics–Eidos subgroup inside Embracer. That means day-one familiarity with Embracer’s tangled reporting lines, regional politics, and its mountains of partially finished projects.
- Investor Soother – Rogers isn’t saddled with the acquisitions blame. For funds burned by the stock slide, a fresh face with Wall Street rivets on his résumé is a welcome optics upgrade.
Wingefors Isn’t Gone—He’s Moving Upstairs
The board wants Wingefors’ nose for deal-making without the PR baggage of layoffs. So it’s proposing him as Executive Chair, tasked with—you guessed it—“strategic initiatives, M&A, and capital allocation”. In practice, Rogers gets day-to-day headaches while Wingefors scripts the next shopping spree from a loftier perch.
Five Big Questions That Will Define Rogers’ First Year
| # | Burning Question | Early Signal to Watch | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Will Embracer keep divesting? | Any sale of THQ Nordic or Plaion. | More sales = narrower, healthier focus. |
| 2 | Can he halt the layoff cycle? | Headcount trend in the FY 2026 report. | Morale and brand reputation hinge on this. |
| 3 | What’s the AAA slate? | Updates on Tomb Raider, Perfect Dark, KOTOR remake. | Proof that Embracer can still fund blockbusters. |
| 4 | Will he embrace live-service? | Repositioning of Crystal Dynamics/Eidos roadmaps. | Determines long-term revenue stability. |
| 5 | How does Middle-earth fit? | Details on the LOTR spin-off structure. | Could become Embracer’s Marvel-like cash cow. |
Industry Ripples
- Publishers – Ubisoft and Take-Two will watch whether Embracer under Rogers becomes a seller or buyer in 2026.
- Employees – A non-founder CEO often brings stricter performance metrics. Studios that coasted on Embracer’s laissez-faire past may feel new pressure.
- Licensors – Amazon (new Tomb Raider show) and Disney (Marvel’s Blade) must renegotiate with leadership that has first-party dev chops rather than financial-engineering DNA.
Embracer’s greatest weakness is its sprawl: 9 operative groups, 138 internal studios, 200+ ongoing projects. Rogers’ best move isn’t another acquisition but a ruthless Marie Kondo sweep—kill projects that don’t “spark joy,” funnel the freed cash into four or five tent-poles, and rebuild trust with dev teams. Do that, and Embracer could morph from punchline to comeback story by 2027.
Sidebar: Who Is Phil Rogers?
- First job: Finance director at Disney’s Buena Vista in the ’90s.
- Signature win: Green-lit the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, which sold 14 M+ copies.
- Biggest flop: Backed the ill-fated live-service push for Marvel’s Avengers.
Expect Rogers’ first earnings call in November 2025 to reveal:
- A trimmed studio roster (perhaps 100 by FY 2027).
- Concrete release windows for Tomb Raider and Perfect Dark.
- A new debt-to-EBIT target—anything under 2× would reassure investors.
If he delivers on even two of those, Embracer might finally stop playing “Empire Builder” and start acting like a disciplined publisher.
