Embracer Group To Split Into Three Separate Companies

And I'm guessing here, those smaller companies will be bought by the EA's or Ubisofts of the world.

Looks like they're done Embracing. Wonder what this will mean for the smaller entities, going forward. Hopefully this is the rigth decision for them and the people involved.

Does Embracer have permanent rights to The Lord of the Rings IP, or will they have to change the name of Middle Earth Enterprises & Friends if they ever lose it?

@Olliemar28 Question for ya. Where is Early-earth and Late-earth?We never hear from those two.

Well, they had to do something. They got tired that every time they mention their name, investors and customers would run for the hills.

Middle Earth Enterprises & Friends
Waitrose & Partners
Mars & Affiliates

Welcome to the new company naming scheme

What terrible, terrible names.

@Fangleman32 You mean Narnia?

@GravyThief Middle-Earth enterprises is the sequel to LoTR.

After the one ring was destroyed, Embracer purchased the rights to the land of Mordor. Eventually they took over all of Middle-earth.

Not even the combined powers of Gandalf and Aragorn could stand against the might of Embracer's legal team.

Ahh yes. The corporate restructuring game of merging then splitting. Then selling. Then buying. 😂🤣 🤪 🤪

This is the same company that has been buying IPs up for the last 5 years right?

Anyone ever read, “There was an Old Lady that Swallowed a Fly?”

Eventually she went kablooie after swallowing a horse.

We used to criticise companies for only wanting profits. At least that made some sense. The modern quest for growth at the expense of all else leads to some utterly bizarre behaviour.

I saw a documentary about Middle-Earth enterprises, where the forest was to make way for the fire of industry.

If I remember correctly, it didn't work out well for the CEO.

If you read the whole press release you'll see that the 'Coffee Stain & Friends', and 'Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends' are just place-holder names, and an in-joke about Lar's start as a comics distributor. They're structured like that to show that the CEO of Coffee Stain, Anton Westbergh, will lead that group, while MEAF is lead by Phil Rogers of Crystal Dynamics, formerly Square-Enix North America. Yeah, THAT guy... luckily, he'll still be answering to Lars. since it will be "the remaining" of Embracer itself.

AS FOR WHO'S GOING WHERE:

Asmodee is just going to be it's own thing again, but still have to answer to MEAF

Coffee Stain is taking: everything it already has, Tuxedo Labs (formerly of Saber), DECA, Easybrain, Amplifier Game Invest (although Tarsier is listed seperatly so it may have some additional autonomy now), and MOST surprising, THQNordic. Yep, the branch that started it all now is getting partially spun-off, and doesn't even get top billing... though looking at what happened with Six Flags that may change anyway.

MEAF specifically calls out that in addition to everything else under Freemode, they'll be keeping TripWire (again, formerly of Saber), Dark Horse, and PLAION. Specifically calling out that they still control 4A, but not Zen, signifying that they may be keeping the Metro studio, but not the Pinball boys.

Notably unaccounted for is; Lost Boys Interactive, Arc Games, Captured Dimmensions, Aionic Labs, demiurge, 34 Big Things, Shiver, Snapshot, and aspyr.

Basically, it seems to me anyway, Embracer was made up of a bunch of investment bankers who were buying up IPs to create a portfolio that they hoped was worth more than the sum of its parts with the intention of selling said portfolio for mega-profits.

Gamble didn't pay off and now they're scrambling to make anything they can from a fire sale.

@TheBoilerman This is the core MISunderstanding of why Embracer has such a bad reputation. Embracer is not "a bunch of investment bankers;" it's all one insane Swede; Lars Wingefors. This has all been his insane vision from the get-go. His main problem was that he was TOO hands off and willing to let people do what they want. This led to an unfocused vision as every department went in every other direction. Mostly Randy. Most of Embracer's debt came from bad deals Randy made with their checkbook, but it was Lars over-reaching to get Eidos and Middle Earth at the same time that bit him. It wasn't the greed of a shadowy cabal; it was a kid in a candy store that got too anxious.

This new three-pillar structure will be more sustanable, while still keeping everything under the closest thing to an Iwata style "mad visionary" the western corporate world has.

"Coffee Stain & Friends" feels TOO on the nose.

“Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends”

Did Saruman come up with this name?

Personally I've grown quite fond of Embracer the last five years or so. I've really enjoyed Darksiders III and the new Alone in the Dark game took me by surprise. The Tomb Raider Remaster collection was thankfully really well done, and I also put a lot of hours into Remnant: From the Ashes (until I realized it's a souls-like with guns and therefore too unforgiving in the long run for my liking).

I guess it’s time to Embracer these new names

@shgamer Personally, I think Darksiders Genesis is the best of them. Strife just felt so different compared to the other 3 that I enjoyed the banter.

After getting a taste of the character, Im still looking forward to the day if ever we get a 5th entry starring him. He just felt so lively to play and is clearly the most laid back of them.

Wow those are some bad names.

Whatever, let them get on with it. I just hope they've learned their lesson and will stop buying up other perfectly good studios only to shut them down later.

Such terrible names, imagine buying a game made by a devs called Coffee Stain and Friends.

@Zeebor15 Thanks for all the info. This Lars guy sounds like someone who was buying up all the comic books in the 80s hoping they’d be worth something some day and with the crash in the 90s he’s now just broken up his investment piles into Marvel, DC and Image hoping they’ll be worth more that way.

Seriously, someone ask him, if he’s old enough I bet he has a bunch of comics sealed away unread in airtight bags untouched by human hands.

@Haruki_NLI I mean, I'm fine with the occasional &, and at least the companies have companions, unlike me...

So it's loading its debt onto Asmodee? That doesn't seem great to me, as a board games fan.

@rjejr Lar's father worked in shipping and distribution. When I say he got his start in comics, I mean he litterally started a mail-order comic shop at 14, and from there grew into games. That original distribution company, GOE, is still around today as part of Freemode. He does still have his own comics collection, though it's an open library. Much like how the Embracer Archive is set up for games eductation in Sweden. At the end of the day, Embracer isn't run by greed for money, but a desire to collect, grow, and share art. No matter how esoteric or minor it may seem.

@PlayerOne It's more like a re-finance as Asmodee was one of the most profitable parts of Embracer during the restructure. Since Embracer itself will only be left with the extra caustic AAA projects, and Coffee Stain is taking a majority of the "wide net" approach companies, like THQNordic's 30 or so in-development games, that leaves Asmodee as the ones most likely able to pay the debt back the fastest.

Well, I think the "& Friends" is far worse than Middle-Earth Enterprises.

Smart of them to have a line of business focused on smaller games. They cost less and if done right can bring in a good amount of profit - the industry should give it a try. But let's be honest, Embracer did this to make it easier to sell parts of their business.

Asmodee right now is the only thing in Embracer that is actually hitting out of the park, so this move makes complete sense.

Interesting that they would have the Coffee Stain has the lead team and name over THQ. Coffee Stain has come a long way from making the funny goat Game Jam game, but their publishing crew has undeniable hits with Huntdown, Valheim and Deep Rock Galactic.

Guessing mass buying companies and IP's doesn't pay off.

Where third new Deus Ex / Adam game?

This makes sense, but i do hope they'll make board games from videogames IP and vice versa to promote brand recognition.
Also i hear they own the WWE nowadays and are making deals with Netflix. This could lead hopefully to more video content of those IP's.

I'm hoping Disney buys Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends so we can get Lara Croft in Kingdom Hearts.

Man I just wished that these bigger gaming companies would just stop buying up smaller companies. They're ruining the whole industry, rarely anything good comes out of it. All we get is cancelled franchises or lame remakes.

@Zeebor15 Thanks for all that, I can always spot a fellow comics guy. 😂

While his intentions may be good, the fact that the company grew that fast only to then split in not 2 but 3 parts just as fast means he isn't doing it right. 🤷‍♂️

@rjejr I'd still rather the Embracer method than the EA, Microsoft, or Take-Two method.

My immediate reaction to a company becoming three smaller companies instead of one megacorp is "nature is healing". Reality is probably not as kind as my hopes from this happening, but I can hope.

@Zeebor15
You wrote the article nintendo life should have written. Thank you!

@Zeebor15 " the Embracer method "

Which method is that the though, the buy everyone up and then fire all of the employees method, or the buy up all of the smaller companies to make 1 big company only to then break your company up into 3 smaller companies method?

Looking less like a "method" and more like a flying by the seat of ones pants. Hopefully for the employees benefit he gets it right this time.

@rjejr Embracer fired fewer people in 2 years than Microsoft does in an afternoon. It was a massive mistake, but not one done out of malice, and the only reason Embracer got "dragged through the mud" is because 1) the process was dragged out longer than it needed to be because they really were triple checking to make sure they only fired people they NEEDED to fired/couldn't keep on in any role (most of Saber was never laid off just moved to more profitable studios, and the 5 studios that were closed down had finace problems that would have taken them out regardless) and 2) news sites had sponsorship deals preventing them from being as harsh on other companies who were being evil jerks.

From embracing to disgracing. Conglomeration tomfoolery. What a waste of money and time.

@Haruki_NLI We're back to the 1800s naming schemes

Geez, what a mess.😆

Businesses consolidate to "streamline" and now split to "streamline." I hear the word all the time at work and think it reduces the productivity of any conversation where it's said. 😆

@Zeebor15

Thank you for your interesting insights. One question remains, though.

**Cue suspenseful music**

Are you Lars?!

Feels weird to be the one saying this, but tax the crap out of these people that have more money than functioning brain cells. All they seem to do is make everything worse in their endless playing of Adventure Capitalist in real life.

@amongtheworms No, I'm Polish

I would expect this is less about branding and more about pushing all the bad debt on one company and torching it. This was really the only logical outcome of having your entire plan hinge on getting investment money that fell through.

For the rest I'll withhold judgement for when actual games get released, although that does not appear to be a prioritized goal at this time.

@Zeebor15 I'm pretty sure most layoffs aren't done out of "malice", they're done to either make more money or lose less money.

Microsoft has over 220,000 employees, about twenty times larger than Embracer's 12,000, so of course they fire more people than Embracer.

Are you like part owner or friends w/ the owner or what, you seem to be taking this all very personally?

@rjejr I am sicophant, but yes I do own 80 shares

My frustration stems from the fact that people lay into Embracer a disproportionately large amount. Did they make a mistake? A very very BIG mistake? Yes, but people treat them like they're the root of every problem in every economic system on the planet when really, as you yourself said, they are a BLIP compared to oligarchical giants like Microsoft or Take-Two who go out of their way to invent new ways to undercut, violate, or outright destroy consumer and employee rights on a daily basis.

With all the effort of hate and anger that was thrown at one autistic Swede over the past 2 years, we could have dismantled the two party system, brought peace and freedom to the citizens of China, and publicly pantsed Bob Iger.

@Zeebor15 Agree w/ all of that. 😁

It was nice to see the guy step up and take responsibility, you defended him more than he defended himself. 😉

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2024/04/embracer-ceo-admits-mistakes-were-made-i-could-take-a-lot-of-that-blame-myself

@rjejr Yeah, every site is taking that gameindustry.biz article apart and spinning it like a meatball. Wargaming.com are the most brutal I've seen, but then again, why would Warhammer fans be level headed about anything? I'm just glad Embracer can finally go into damage control now so it's not just me and Clear River patching holes.

@Zeebor15 I tend to stay away from gaming sites except for NL and PS b/c they're all too negative, and I get all the negativity I need on Twitter. 😁

@rjejr You call this place positive?

@Zeebor15 Well comparatively. 😂