Embracer Group have announced that after being the cause of many job losses, shutting down developers and selling some off - they're now splitting into three companies.
These three will be Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends. Each of them will be separate, publicly listed companies which Embracer say enables " each entity to better focus on their respective core strategies and offer more differentiated and distinct equity stories for existing and new shareholders" that will enable them to "unlock value in the high-quality assets of Embracer Group following the successful completion of the restructuring program".
Coffee Stain & Friends will have a focus on a wide variety of games across PC, console and mobile across two distinct segments of premium and free to play. This includes some control over Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Simulator, Satisfactory, Wreckfest, Teardown, Valheim, Coffee Stain, Ghost Ship, Tarsier, Tuxedo Labs, as well as THQ Nordic and Amplifier Game Invest plus "more than 200 other IPs".
Asmodee Group will focus on board games and digital board games including Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Azul, CATAN, Dobble, Exploding Kittens plus they're also developing tabletop games for The Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Game of Thrones, Netflix, Lego and Star Wars. As part of this, Asmodee also secured a new financing agreement of 900 million euros through JP Morgan, BNP Paribas, SEB, Societe Generale and Swedbank which Embracer said is "an important part of the debt refinancing of Embracer Group following its restructuring program".
Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends will be their "creative powerhouse in AAA game development" and will remain the "stewards of The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider intellectual properties" but they also control the likes of Crystal Dynamics, Dambuster Studios, Eidos-Montréal, Flying Wild Hog Studios, Tripwire, Vertigo Games, Warhorse Studios and 4A Games among many others. IPs includes Dead Island, Killing Floor, Kingdom Come Deliverance, The Lord of the Rings, Metro and Tomb Raider, among many others. The group will include PLAION, Freemode, Dark Horse and other businesses.
I should note that both Coffee Stain & Friends and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends aren't the official names, just what they're being referred to right now. As Embracer said the official names will be "decided at a later stage".
More in their press release and the open letter from the Embracer CEO.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
-buy companies, merge into one = benefit
-split companies into many = benefit
"with Embracer you always benefit!"
everything done just with the intent of how to artificially boost/play around shareholders investment.
LOL @PR bs...
-buy companies, merge into one = benefit
-split companies into many = benefit
"with Embracer you always benefit!"
everything done just with the intent of how to artificially boost/play around shareholders investment.
"offer more differentiated and distinct equity stories for existing and new shareholders" this was delightful to read. It's amazing how many new phrases corporate marketing can invent and yet be so devoid of meaning.
What even is an equity story? A shareholders wet dream where they spent $5, sucked everything out of developers and existing IP, and made millions?
Turkeysteaks Apr 22
gradyvuckovic Apr 22
Is the person running Embracer just some kitty easily distracted by shiny?
What was the dog damn point of buying up all of these companies, claiming they'd be all stronger under one umbrella, firing many of the talented employees that made those companies successful in the first place, shutting down some of them entirely, only to announce that now the companies will stronger split up under separate entities!
I mean bloody hell, what was the dog damn point of all that?
Arehandoro Apr 22
Apr 22
I mean bloody hell, what was the dog damn point of all that?
Quoting myself from Discord:
When interest rates were low there was loads of investment money sloshing around looking for something that would create growth. The games industry took advantage of that by studios growing and acquiring other studios. Embracer already had lots of studios from buying studio groups at fire sale prices and had a hope that they'd all be able to cross-pollinate and provide steady income, so they continued to buy studios at market prices with the investment money sloshing around. They weren't that good at actually getting games released, though - they just had hundreds in the pipeline.
Then interest rates went up, and the "free" investment money dried up. All the studios that had been relying on that investment money were now unsustainable - hence the industry-wide massive layoffs and studio closures. Embracer was particularly relying on a $2 billion deal that fell through. They've been restructuring to try to cover that.
When a restructuring company splits in two it is usually because they want to keep the "good" parts and put the "bad" parts in a "bad company" that can be left to die. This is a little different, why 3 companies? The "AAA" company is probably the profitable one, the one they plan to keep milking. But the other two? Two different levels of risk of investment?"bad" ones - will leave to wither and die.
"OK" ones - will parcel off.
"good" ones - for keeping.
Or something on those lines...
dziadulewicz Apr 22
When a restructuring company splits in two it is usually because they want to keep the "good" parts and put the "bad" parts in a "bad company" that can be left to die. This is a little different, why 3 companies? The "AAA" company is probably the profitable one, the one they plan to keep milking. But the other two? Two different levels of risk of investment?
One for board games.
One for AAA computer games.
One for Indie computer games.
One ring to rule them all... sorry, wrong story.
"Everyone knows our name now and we are synonymous with layoffs, the death of games, horrible management and just general negligence in every possible way?"
"CHANGE THE NAME ...!"
"Also generate some random marketing corporate speak"
"Ladies and Gents, I think we are done here, good job all around, bonuses to everyone."
slaapliedje Apr 22
and in the darkness Embrace them?When a restructuring company splits in two it is usually because they want to keep the "good" parts and put the "bad" parts in a "bad company" that can be left to die. This is a little different, why 3 companies? The "AAA" company is probably the profitable one, the one they plan to keep milking. But the other two? Two different levels of risk of investment?
One for board games.
One for AAA computer games.
One for Indie computer games.
One ring to rule them all... sorry, wrong story.
Ha, Middle-Earth as a game franchise should probably just die off. They've either made all the relevant games for it (some RTS, strategy games make the most sense), broke with the lore a lot (the Mordor games were really fun, but definitely weren't bound by any of the lore), and then we had Gollum... which should have been an awesome game, if it had been executed correctly.
Granted, I still think The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings is all that was ever needed for it.
Their board game division irritates me, since I was looking to get some of the Star Wars RPG books that Fantasy Flight games made a while back, but they're now all out of print after Embracer / Asmodee bought them.
Embracer was particularly relying on a $2 billion deal that fell through. They've been restructuring to try to cover that.
If I remember correctly then the rumour-mill said that this was a planned investment by the Saudi government, so that was probably a good thing that it fell through.
Being a clown when leading a major company is not one of them.
Their board game division irritates me, since I was looking to get some of the Star Wars RPG books that Fantasy Flight games made a while back, but they're now all out of print after Embracer / Asmodee bought them.I liked the Rory's Story Cubes line, they're good for coming up with prompts when the dreaded writers' block strikes, but then they got sold to Asmodee and the line just dried up. It's all just reissues of years-old sets but sometimes in different packaging, now, and they stopped making new sets and add-ons years ago. It's a good thing they're so versatile, but it's still a shame...
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