Shadow Warrior 3 first official screenshots-1

The ‘Embracer Group’ has recently acquired 13 new game companies, including 11 game developers


It appears that Embracer Group has acquired a dozen of gaming companies, including the developers of Phoenix Point, Shadow Warrior, Redout, and Pinball FX among others.

Embracer Group is a company that serves as the parent for THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive, and Deep Silver, and owns publishers THQ Nordic and Koch Media. The company has recently acquired 13 different game studios.

Embracer Group gave a full presentation detailing its 13 new acquisitions of game developers, QA, and PR groups on its Investor Relations webpages on November 18, 2020. Among the many studios acquired, standouts include Zen Studios, Flying Wild Hog, Purple Lamp, and Snapshot Games.

“Some studios have been purchased by the group itself, while others have been purchased through subsidiaries. To support its ongoing mergers and acquisitions strategy, the company completed a directed share issues back in October to the tune of SEK 5.7 billion ($663.3 million).” – via GamesIndustry.biz.

The group is known for its rapid expansion in the gaming industry, and prior to these acquisitions, Embracer was already one of the most expansive publishers in the industry.

Embracer Group acquisitions-1

Below is the full list of studios and groups in Embracer Group’s acquisition.

  • A Thinking Ape Entertainment – The developers of mobile free-to-play titles CasinoX and Kingdoms at War
  • Zen Studios – The Budapest studio behind the Pinball FX games, with expansions based on properties like Star Wars and The Walking Dead
  • Snapshot Games – The development team behind Phoenix Point will “expand the Phoenix Point universe” and “bring new IP to a global audience” following the acquisition
  • Nimble Giant Entertainment – The Argentinian studio behind Champions of Regnum and Quantum League
  • 34BigThings – The Italian studio responsible for the Redout racing game series
  • Mad Head Games – A Serbian studio specializing in mystery and Hidden Object games.
  • Purple Lamp Studios – The Austrian team behind Spongebob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated, who are set to put their “ambitious plans into action” following the acquisition
  • IUGO Mobile Entertainment – A Vancouver based-studio working on mobile free-to-play games, previously responsible for The Walking Dead: Road to Survival
  • Coffee Stain North – A smaller studio and partner of Coffee Stain Studios, who has worked on Goat Simulator and A Story About My Uncle
  • Silent Games – A Newcastle-based studio working on its debut IP, a long-lasting co-op franchise where players will “unearth deep secrets of an ancient civilization.” The first game is set for a 2023 launch.
  • Flying Wild Hog – The Polish studio behind the Shadow Warrior series of games, Flying Wild Hog is now working on “four projects together with well reputable external publishers”

Embracer Group acquisitions-2

The two non-game development companies acquired by Embracer are Sandbox Strategies, a PR firm, and Quantic Lab, a Romanian QA specialist. In total, Embracer has brought more than 1,250 new employees under its umbrella.

The Embracer Group now owns a staggering 214 game IPs and franchises. The publisher has 114 total development teams, of which 58 are internal and 56 are external. There are also 4,367 current game developers across both segments.

The wild growth of Embracer’s games business is certainly impressive from a journalist point of view, but some analysts note that these acquisitions are less about quality and more about quantity, a conceit pointed out by Louise Shorthouse, senior analyst at Ampere Analysis.

“These latest acquisitions, along with previous ones, are virtually all indie or AA-studios,” Shorthouse told GameDaily.

“So although the reach and influence of Embracer Group has become even greater, its voice often cannot be heard above the noise of the industry-leading titles and their creators in terms of mainstream coverage. It seems like Embracer Group is targeting growth through breadth and diversity–in other words, rather than trying to sell millions of copies of a single game, it can sell thousands of copies of multiple titles.”

In perhaps the biggest acquisition out of the bunch, Shadow Warrior developer Flying Wild Hog was acquired by Koch Media/Deep Silver. The developer has four games currently in development, with all indications that existing projects like Shadow Warrior 3 will continue under their existing partnerships.

THQ Nordic brings in Purple Lamp Studios, the team behind the highly successful remake of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom.

Here is the full Embracer Group hierarchy:

Embracer Group acquisitions-3

Stay tuned for more!