After a failed $2 billion deal, the Swedish video game conglomerate Embracer Group has been selling studios, as the developer of Saints Row, Volition, in an effort to restructure the company. Your next goal? The developer and publisher of Borderlands, Gearbox Entertainmentas reported by Reuters on Monday.
It is reported that embrace is considering its options for the US-based developer, whose last release was Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and New Tales from the Borderlands in 2022. Third parties have shown interest in the study, Reuters said. A representative of embrace, noting that the company does not comment on rumors, declined to comment. Reportedly, embrace had a $2 billion deal in process with Savvy Games Group financed by the Saudi government, which had previously invested $1 billion in embracebut savy he eventually backed down, Axios reported. And thus, the consolidation of the industry embrace began to collapse, as the company seeks to reduce its debt to less than $930 million.
embrace has only been the owner of gearbox since 2021, when the mega-publisher bought the company in a deal valued at nearly $1.4 billion. The same day, embrace announced the acquisition of two more studios. The rapid expansion was not surprising for the Swedish publisher, known for its aggressive expansion strategy. Owns the rights to tomb Raideracquired when embrace bought Eidos, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix Montreal to square enix in 2022. That same year, embrace acquired the licensing rights to The Lord of the rings and The Hobbit when purchasing from Middle-earth Enterprises, the holder of the rights. This year, the company said it had five games of The Lord of the rings Developing.
“We know that we need to exploit The Lord of the rings in a very significant way, and make it one of the biggest game franchises in the world,” said Matthew Karch, COO of embrace, in June. “And obviously, that’s something we’re going to do. “That’s a much better use of resources than some of the other projects some of our teams have been working on.”
Embracer Group employs almost 17,000 people; An unspecified number are expected to be laid off as the restructuring continues in multiple phases through March 2024. The developer of Saints Row, Volitionand Cabal Campfire based in Copenhagen, which was founded only in 2022, have been closed by embrace. Several employees have also been laid off. Gearbox Publishing.
Via: Polygon
Editor’s note: I don’t know what’s up with Embracer Group, they bought everything and now they’re watching how they sell things :/ But that’s why I didn’t study finance.