After laying off over 1000 people, Embracer Group makes itself some friends by splitting into three companies
Hopefully this is the beginning of the end for layoffs at the company.
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Embracer Group is no more, as the company has made the decision to split into three separate entities, with various developers divided up amongst them.
For the last year or so, it's not been a great time to be a part of Embracer Group. There have been almost 1400 staff laid off across various studios, and several closures too. Saber founder Matthew Karch doesn't think Embracer is evil, just a company "that everyone likes to pick on," despite the fact it spent ridiculous amounts of money on studios it couldn't ultimately afford leading to needless layoffs. But now, Embracer Group doesn't exist anymore, at least not as one company. The group announced earlier today that it is splitting into three companies: Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends.
The "& Friends" part of Middle-earth Enterprises includes a number of familiar names, like Tomb Raider and Marvel's Avengers dev Crystal Dynamics, Dead Island 2 dev Dambuster Studios, Deus Ex dev Eidos-Montreal, and several more. Obviously IP like The Lord of the Rings, as well as Tomb Raider and others, now fall under Middle-earth Enterprises too, as well as media company Plaion, comics publisher Dark Horse, and Freemode.
Coffee Stain & Friends unsurprisingly includes the studio this new company is named after, as well as others like Ghost Ship and THQ Nordic. IPs like Deep Rock Galactic, Valheim, Goat Simulator, Teardown and over 200 others also now fall under this umbrella, as well as some big free-to-play licensed IPs like Star Trek Online and D&D Neverwinter Online. Asmodee will be more focused on tabletop game publishing and distribution.
According to a statement from Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors, "This move has been made with the intention to unleash the full potential of each team and provide them with their own leadership and strategic direction."
You can only hope that this means we won't be seeing any more from not-Embracer, so just keep your fingers crossed for all the remaining devs across these studios.