Swedish juggernaut corp Embracer Group woke up feeling dangerous – and purchased another enormous chunk of the video game industry as a result. The holding company now has approximately 120 game developers under its umbrella, spread across a vast array of divisions and subsidiaries all over the globe. We thought, given the sheer number of purchases, we should summarise the sheer scale of the business – accurate, of course, as of 18th August, 2022.
There are eleven major divisions that make up the Embracer Group, each with their own set of subsidiaries. It’s best to think of each division as its own individual publisher, as they appear to operate largely autonomously.
Here we go, then:
Amplifier Game Invest
- A Creative Endeavor
- DestinyBit
- Fall Damage
- Frame Break
- Framebunker
- Goose Byte
- Green Tile Digital
- Infinite Mana Games
- Invisible Walls
- Kavalri Games
- Misc Games
- Neon Giant
- Palindrome Interactive
- Plucky Bytes
- Rare Earth Games
- River End Games
- Silent Games
- Tarsier Studios
- Vermila Studios
- Zapper Games
Asmodee
- Asmodee
Coffee Stain Holding
- Box Dragon
- Coffee Stain Malmö
- Coffee Stain North
- Coffee Stain Publishing
- Coffee Stain Studios
- Easy Trigger
- Ghost Ship Games
- Lavapotion
Dark Horse Media
- Dark Horse Comics
- Dark Horse Entertainment
DECA Games
- A Thinking Ape Entertainment
- CrazyLabs
- Firescore Interactive
- IUGO Mobile Entertainment
- Jufeng Studio
Easybrain
- Easybrain
Embracer Freemode
- Bitwave Games
- C77 Entertainment
- Clear River Games
- Limited Run Games
- Middle-earth Enterprises
- Game Outlet Europe
- Gioteck
- Quantic Lab
- Grimfrost
- Tatsujin
Gearbox Entertainment
- Cryptic Studios
- Gearbox Publishing
- Gearbox Software
- Gearbox Studio Québec
- Gearbox Studio Montreal
- Lost Boys Interactive
- Gearbox Publishing San Francisco
Plaion
- Deep Silver
- Dambuster Studios
- Fishlabs
- Free Radical Design
- Volition
- DigixArt
- Flying Wild Hog
- Milestone
- Prime Matter
- Ravenscourt
- Splatter Connect
- Spotfilm Networx
- Vertigo Games
- Vertigo Arcade
- Vertigo Publishing
- Vertigo Studios
- SpringboardVR
- Force Field
- Voxler
- Warhorse Studios
Saber Interactive
- 34BigThings
- 3D Realms
- 4A Games
- Aspyr
- Aspyr Media
- Beamdog
- Bytex
- Demiurge Studios
- Digic Pictures
- Fractured Byte
- Mad Head Games
- New World Interactive
- Nimble Giant Entertainment
- Saber Interactive
- Saber Belarus
- Saber Porto
- Saber Russia
- Saber Spain
- Saber Sweden
- Shiver Entertainment
- Slipgate Ironworks
- SmartPhone Labs
- Snapshot Games
- Tuxedo Labs
- Tripwire Interactive
- Zen Studios
THQ Nordic
- Alkimia Interactive
- Appeal Studios
- Ashborne Games
- Black Forest Games
- Bugbear Entertainment
- Experiment 101
- Gate 21 d.o.o.
- Grimlore Games
- Gunfire Games
- HandyGames
- Massive Miniteam
- Kaiko
- Mirage Game Studios
- Nine Rocks Games
- Pieces Interactive
- Piranha Bytes
- Pow Wow Entertainment
- Purple Lamp Studios
- Rainbow Studios
- Rainbow Studios Phoenix
- Rainbow Studios Montréal
- THQ Nordic France
It should be stressed that not every single company on this list makes video games. Dark Horse, for example, oversees media brands like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Similarly, Asmodee is a French firm that distributes board games and tabletop RPGs. The vast majority of them are game developers, though – there’s well over 100 of them.
A lot of these companies also own tons of intellectual property. For example, buried in today’s round of announcements is the fact that the Embracer Group has acquired Tatsujin, which comes with the entire Toaplan catalogue. We couldn’t possibly list all the IP here, but you’re easily talking hundreds if not thousands of recognisable franchises here.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether this scale of industry consolidation will be a good thing. Embracer Group is not the only one who’s been busy, as we’ve also seen the likes of Tencent and Microsoft gobbling up as many companies as they can. Sony has been somewhat proactive, but is largely being left behind – it’s going to be interesting to see where all this leaves the industry in a dozen or so years.
[source News: Embracer Group Buys The Lord of the Rings IP, Maneater Dev, Limited Run, and More]
Comments 24
Well if they now own Gearbox then perhaps the reign of Greasy Randy will come to an end.
“It remains to be seen whether this scale of industry consolidation will be a good thing”
Spoiler alert - it won’t!
Would like to see a list of what games have been released under the embracer group in the last year. Do wonder if they are just hording IP at this point.
There is definitely a lot of recognizable names in that list. One that caught me by surprise was Flying Wild Hog since they are working with Focus Interactive on Evil West. Was that just a case of they bought Flying Wild Hog during development and so they are just honoring the deal like the Bethesda Deathloop situation?
@Korgon Evil West was announced one month after Flying Wild Hog was bought, so a publishing deal would have been in place by then.
"Dark Horse, for example, oversees media brands like Buffy the Vampire Slayer."...huh? Dark Horse publishes comics, no?
@LiamCroft
Ah that makes sense then. Appreciate the response.
Where's Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square-Enix Montreal (or whatever Embracer ends up calling it)?
Wow an Orwellian prophecy
The logical endpoint of unregulated capitalism is a few titanic entities owning absolutely everything, leading to the opposite of a vibrant and diverse marketplace.
Does anyone own their own stuff now a days or is it all going to be run by the "big guy" from up above
Bet nintendo were livid about Embracer buying saber interactive. They have been masters at porting AAA titles to switch
Oh wow, that's crazy!
Ubisoft should take notes on how to the business side of things from them.
Sure it's a lot, but like 90% of those are no-name brands with just a couple big ones.
@Ralizah I've said for a long time that capitalism and communism are actually the same system with the same end goal, central control of all things, they just get there at different speeds by different methods. But the end point in both are exactly the same, and neither are very distinguishable from despotism other than the organizational hierarchy.
@Tiael status of acquisition of these studios given as Pending in the latest statements of Embracer, and they are excluded from 23-24 forecasts - probably that’s why they are missing.
Well, at least it's not ms, right? Right??
Dang...that is alot to manage. Cannot be sustainable for a long time.
Didn't they own Crystal Dynamics?
Only other purchase I see Sony making is Square Enix. Which is worthless because most of there stuff is already exclusive to Playstation. With them selling off the best part of there company now they are cheap enough for Sony to buy.
This is crazy, to own this much. 30yrs from now it will only be Tencent, Microsoft, and Embracer. Sony will sell their gaming department to one of these groups because money is going to win.
Physical games will be of the past and it will be subscription city, we are literally seeing the beginning of all of it.
I had forgotten that they owned Dark Horse, Deep Silver/Volition, Gearbox, and Saber Interactive, huh.
@ThorsHammer They were referring to the Buffy comics that Dark Horse creates, not the actual TV show/IP.
@KidBoruto thats a strange way to phrase it then. Dark Horse has published several comic liscenses (Buffy, Aliens, Star Wars), as well as published original IP (Sin City, Hellboy, Concrete), not to mention dabbled in film production and (briefly) in video games - to say their only in charge of managing a brand like Buffy is not really accurate..espcially when its FOX (now owned by Disney) that manages the brand. The article does a great job in descriping the relevance of all Embracer's other assests, just thought to point this out for a possible better edit, since Dark Horse is a major get for these guys.
@ThorsHammer Oh I agree and fully know how well diverse Dark Horse is. I own alot of their comics, both acquired licenses and original IPs.
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