Embracer Group goes on (another) buying spree. Purchases the Tolkien IP, Tripwire Interactive, and others.

Derangel

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Embracer Group (formerly known as Nordic, then THQNordic, before settling on Embracer) has announced that it has gone on another spree of buying companies and IPs. No prices were disclosed for any of the purchases for "commercial reasons".

The biggest purchase in this round is, of course, Middle-Earth Enterprises. Middle-Earth Enterprises is the company that owns the rights to adapt all of Tolkien's work into games, movies, toys, etc. The purchase does not include the books as those remain owned by the Tolkien estate. While Embracer didn't give any solid details on what their plan is for this acquisition, it's easy to assume that it will include a lot more Hobbit and Lord of the Rings related stuff coming out.

Not content with buying one of the most recognizable IPs on the planet, Embracer also announced that it will be the new owner of Tripwire Interactive. Tripwire are the people behind Maneater, Killing Floor, and others.

That's not all! Embracer stated they are purchasing Limited Run Games. The company that does limited releases of physical games.

We're still not done folks! On top of all of those Embracer is also grabbing Tuxedo Labs (Teardown), Bitwave Games (primarily a mobile game dev), Goiteck (European gaming accessory maker), Singtrix (karaoke company), Tatsujin (Japanese company run by former founders and employees of Toaplan.

That is a lot of companies. I'm not sure how many companies and IPs Embracer owns at this point (I wonder if they even know), but it doesn't look like they have any plans on slowing down anytime soon.

Source
 
Shame to see Tripwire go from indie to being owned by a big corporation. They were one of the first non-Valve developers on Steam. Red Orchestra was a great game. Mod friendly, lots of free updates, server browsers. But the CEO left the company a year or so back. I think the days of Tripwire making a good, niche realistic shooter/mil sim like Red Orchestra is a thing of the past which is a shame. I was hoping they would come out with a RO3 or another game in the series. Even if they didn't go for the realism approach they might have been able to pull off a Battlefield style game now that DICE is no longer in that market.
 
Embracer Group (formerly known as Nordic, then THQNordic, before settling on Embracer) has announced that it has gone on another spree of buying companies and IPs. No prices were disclosed for any of the purchases for "commercial reasons".

The biggest purchase in this round is, of course, Middle-Earth Enterprises. Middle-Earth Enterprises is the company that owns the rights to adapt all of Tolkien's work into games, movies, toys, etc. The purchase does not include the books as those remain owned by the Tolkien estate. While Embracer didn't give any solid details on what their plan is for this acquisition, it's easy to assume that it will include a lot more Hobbit and Lord of the Rings related stuff coming out.

Not content with buying one of the most recognizable IPs on the planet, Embracer also announced that it will be the new owner of Tripwire Interactive. Tripwire are the people behind Maneater, Killing Floor, and others.

That's not all! Embracer stated they are purchasing Limited Run Games. The company that does limited releases of physical games.

We're still not done folks! On top of all of those Embracer is also grabbing Tuxedo Labs (Teardown), Bitwave Games (primarily a mobile game dev), Goiteck (European gaming accessory maker), Singtrix (karaoke company), Tatsujin (Japanese company run by former founders and employees of Toaplan.

That is a lot of companies. I'm not sure how many companies and IPs Embracer owns at this point (I wonder if they even know), but it doesn't look like they have any plans on slowing down anytime soon.

Source
I never really care for when a larger studio absorbs smaller ones. It always seems to suck all the creativity or actual magic out of the studios. Saw this with Bioware... the current company is a shadow of it's former self. You see it with a number of franchises that got gobbled up (like rights to Fallout... while the shooters were something I got into for a while I still miss the isometric games Interplay used to punch out). I was not really happy when MS purchased InXile (Wasteland) and haven't heard a damn thing from them in a while. Didn't like it when Hair Brained Schemes (Battletech PC TBS) was nabbed by Paradox. Many promises that HBS made fell short of their KS goals and many things got cut and rushed after acquisition. People might argue on that but I'm tired of devs making promises and then selling out to the highest bidder... Lots of these companies like HBS were just a cash grab from Jordan Wiseman (FASA, SHADOWRUN, BATTLETECH, EARTHDAWN, etc) to recreate them and then dump them before he dies... I suspect InXile was no different in the motives behind selling the company and something similar happened with Bioware's founders cashing out. Maybe it's just good "make me rich" sense but it has led to a reduced quality in a number of titles.

Nothing really rocks me anymore in the gaming space... Maybe I'm just getting too old to care...
 
Embracer Group (formerly known as Nordic, then THQNordic, before settling on Embracer) has announced that it has gone on another spree of buying companies and IPs. No prices were disclosed for any of the purchases for "commercial reasons".

The biggest purchase in this round is, of course, Middle-Earth Enterprises. Middle-Earth Enterprises is the company that owns the rights to adapt all of Tolkien's work into games, movies, toys, etc. The purchase does not include the books as those remain owned by the Tolkien estate. While Embracer didn't give any solid details on what their plan is for this acquisition, it's easy to assume that it will include a lot more Hobbit and Lord of the Rings related stuff coming out.

Not content with buying one of the most recognizable IPs on the planet, Embracer also announced that it will be the new owner of Tripwire Interactive. Tripwire are the people behind Maneater, Killing Floor, and others.

That's not all! Embracer stated they are purchasing Limited Run Games. The company that does limited releases of physical games.

We're still not done folks! On top of all of those Embracer is also grabbing Tuxedo Labs (Teardown), Bitwave Games (primarily a mobile game dev), Goiteck (European gaming accessory maker), Singtrix (karaoke company), Tatsujin (Japanese company run by former founders and employees of Toaplan.

That is a lot of companies. I'm not sure how many companies and IPs Embracer owns at this point (I wonder if they even know), but it doesn't look like they have any plans on slowing down anytime soon.

Source
At least it's not Tencent.

I haven't seen anything that would suggest the stereotypical corporate influence on creatives from Embracer thus far, but it's too early to tell if that will change once Embracer reaches critical mass. Each of their subsidiaries seems able to operate independently. These new acquisitions are part of a new subsidiary called Embracer Freemode. It was specifically created to support small- to medium-sized studios, according to their press release. Freemode's CEO worked at Activision for a long time, though...

Embracer Group now holds 11 subsidiaries consisting of 112 development studios.

Hopefully the acquisition of LRG means they'll be able to turn around their products faster, but I won't hold my breath on that one.
 
Tripwire Interactive was already dead. They never fully completed their promises concerning new Rising Storm 2 updates/content, and much worse, they actually broke a major aspect of the game (for all players, including Steam ones) with the "update" they released to enable Epic Games Store integration. So they got paid for integrating it in Epic Games and simultaneously made the game significantly worse than before, and permanently left it that way with not even any communication!

The first one I could have forgiven, but breaking the game and then quitting? Ridiculous.

There were not going to be any good games coming from Tripwire in the future. That my still be the case, but at least there is a small chance now that the Red Orchestra and Rising Storm IPs will have positive developments, whereas there was zero chance before.
 
Maneater was good which was Tripwire. Maybe they can ditch Spellforce and make a Middle Earth game instead of using made up characters.
 
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Can't say I played any of those, I'm sure they're in good hand (sarcasm tag).

I just found out a few days ago Crunchy Roll bought Right Stuf Anime and Sony's the parent company of CR. 1st thing they did was get rid of the erotica stuff. :(
 
All this is in preparation to create a single product. It will be called [redacted]

It will be its own platform. Hardware, software, all in one. Operating system and software in one package.

You will not need to purchase any additional entertainment packages. You would not be able to. You would not even want to.

Your friends in the industry have been working on it for years and they don't even know it. You've been working on it for years and you don't even know it.
 
Maneater was good which was Tripwire. Maybe the can ditch Spellforce and make a Middle Earth game instead of using made up characters.
Maneater was one of a handful of games over the past 5 years I actually had fun playing throughout. It was an amusing chucklefest with solid gameplay.
 
Tripwire Interactive was already dead. They never fully completed their promises concerning new Rising Storm 2 updates/content, and much worse, they actually broke a major aspect of the game (for all players, including Steam ones) with the "update" they released to enable Epic Games Store integration. So they got paid for integrating it in Epic Games and simultaneously made the game significantly worse than before, and permanently left it that way with not even any communication!

The first one I could have forgiven, but breaking the game and then quitting? Ridiculous.

There were not going to be any good games coming from Tripwire in the future. That my still be the case, but at least there is a small chance now that the Red Orchestra and Rising Storm IPs will have positive developments, whereas there was zero chance before.

RS2 was essentially end of life as it was. They added South Vietnamese and Australian factions for free, including new weapons and vehicles. It was also primarily made by Antimatter Games. They initially started out as a mod for Red Orchestra 2 working on Rising Storm, which became an official free update adding the Pacific Theater. They then worked in RS2 as a standalone game. Their contract with Tripwire ran out.

They are apparently working on '83, a Red Orchestra style Cold War game. I have no idea if this will actually release though.

Antimatter Games.
 
Can't say I played any of those, I'm sure they're in good hand (sarcasm tag).

I just found out a few days ago Crunchy Roll bought Right Stuf Anime and Sony's the parent company of CR. 1st thing they did was get rid of the erotica stuff. :(
youll have to get your hentai the old fashioned way....

At least it's not Tencent.
that!!
 
I have to admit: I'd love if Embracer made a Hobbit take on Stardew Valley where you just spend your days farming in the Shire. Your enemy isn't Sauron, it's the Sackville Bagginses.
 
Bummer to hear about Tripwire, our friend group played a TON of Killing Floor 1 & 2 (2's soundtrack as SO GOOD!). Then they decided to go the loot-box route with it and I immediately lost interest.

So many fond memories of playing the melee class goth chick with the modified sledgehammer that also shot shotgun shells on impact while Demon Hunter blares in the background :D
 
When you become large enough that all of your creative energy is dried up by corporate BS you just buy up companies that haven't become dried out, soulless husks...

...And then you scoop their insides out and add them to your husk collection!

That's tech-sector 101. Build up market cap and buy or steal innovation from companies that aren't solely focused on investors and dividends.
 
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