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.
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