Thief, Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, Legacy of Kain... So many legendary licenses previously held by Square Enix which will soon change ownership. It is the Embracer group which, in its logic of expansion, bought three of the studios of the Japanese holding company.
Who is behind Embracer and what does this takeover mean for the titles in question? The buyer responds to us.
Embracer Group AB, who are these shadow giants?
Do you know the THQ Nordic group? At the origin of well-known games in the early 2000s such as Titan Quest or SpellForce 2 , this studio was originally a company selling used games by the name of Nordic Games. Founded by Swedish entrepreneur Lars Wingefors when he was just 16, the company grew steadily until its founder was able to buy out bankrupt publisher THQ in 2014, forming the famous THQ Nordic that we know today.
This logic of expansion , the founder of the company has kept it until today. Year after year, the holding company acquired here and there studios, most of which were not in top form from a financial or communication point of view. Thus, in September 2019, Lars Wingefors announced that he wanted to formalize the status and philosophy of the company by renaming it " Embracer Group ".
In recent years, Embracer has acquired Saber Interactive , Gearbox Software and even Asmodee , the French board game giant, among others. Today, the Saints Row , Darksiders and Borderlands licenses are therefore under their aegis. With the acquisition of the big sagas of Square Enix, they reinforce their position in a spectacular way.
Far from simply buying up brands, they are taking over all the assets of the studios thus acquired, preserving intellectual property, premises and jobs. It is for this reason that Phil Rogers speaks of a "secret": from the point of view of the public, the transaction is transparent. On the takeover of the Square Enix studios, it is therefore around 1100 employees and eight international premises that Embracer places under its control.
The beginning of the end or towards a revival of redeemed games?
So far, licenses picked up by Embracer are doing well. Their philosophy is precisely to make the AAA franchises of the different studios prosper as much as possible .
No sooner had the announcement been made official than David Anfossi , head of the Eidos-Montreal studio, announced that their first project following the takeover would be a new Deus Ex . He was quoted as saying, " A new team, a very complex production, a new technology and a new studio, an easy challenge " ( source ). Fans of the franchise can therefore rejoice, the idea has been launched!
Moreover, given the ambitions of Embracer and given that Anfossi speaks of "new technology", we would like to imagine that the game will have the famous Unreal Engine 5 as its engine. Be careful however, even if it is the leader of Eidos-Montreal who spoke about this project, no official announcement has been made , let's not immediately draw plans on the comet.
Anyway, the Deus Ex title comes up frequently in communications from Embracer and Square Enix regarding resale, so we can deduce that this is one of the licenses that should benefit the most from this agreement. Can't wait for the next game!
Netflix has to face some budgetary problems and must save money. The streaming platform has decided to reduce the budget of some of its shows. The good news in all of this is that Arcane, the series inspired by League of Legends, will not be impacted.
