Rodney Lelu, senior marketing director at Eidos-Montréal, said on LinkedIn that he is leaving the studio after 12 years, writing that “a new chapter is beginning” following almost two decades within the same group. He marked the post as open to work.
Lelu joined Eidos-Montréal in 2013 as a brand manager and rose to senior marketing director, leading teams of 10 to 15 people across what he called some of the studio’s most ambitious projects. His credits span the Deus Ex series, including Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Deus Ex GO, alongside Thief, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Earlier in his career he worked on Batman: Arkham Asylum and the Tomb Raider reboot within the wider Eidos and Square Enix marketing organization.
Rodney Lelu Departing Message
In his message, Lelu said he was proudest of building the marketing team from a handful of people into a full department spanning brand, social, influencer, performance, and partnership and licensing. He pointed to one effort in particular: helping establish Eidos-Montréal as an independent digital publisher of its own back-catalog, which he said the team built from scratch in under six months. He thanked colleagues across Eidos Interactive, Square Enix, and Embracer, and wished Eidos-Montréal and Fellowship Entertainment well.
Eidos-Montréal, founded in 2007 and based in Montreal, was acquired by Embracer Group from Square Enix in 2022. The studio has continued to support the Tomb Raider franchise while navigating Embracer’s wider restructuring. Lelu said he is looking for a senior marketing leadership role and did not name a destination, and the studio has not announced a successor.
His exit lands during a turbulent stretch for the games industry, in which leaders at long-established studios are leaving through layoffs, closures, and retirements. On the same day Lelu’s post circulated, Xbox Game Studios head Craig Duncan and chief of staff Louise O’Connor confirmed their departures from Microsoft, both Rare veterans, amid a planned “Xbox reset” and reported layoffs. Microsoft is also reported to be closing Compulsion Games, the studio behind South of Midnight, a plan it has not confirmed.
The churn follows a heavy run of cuts. More than a dozen studios shut down and thousands of jobs were eliminated across the industry in the first months of 2026, according to Game Rant’s running tally, spanning major publishers, independent teams, and live-service developers. The pattern has thinned the ranks of experienced studio and franchise leadership built up over the previous console generation.
That turnover places weight on a newer generation of executives and marketers to establish themselves. As veteran names exit, the people stepping into franchise and studio leadership will define the next cycle of major releases, often without the long institutional track records their predecessors carried.
For now, Eidos-Montréal continues development under head of studio David Anfossi. Lelu’s marketing organization, which has shaped the public face of the studio’s releases for years, will need new leadership for the projects ahead.
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