Tag: Embracer

Embracer has sold Gearbox — and Borderlands — to Take-Two for $460M

[ad_1]

Troubled gaming conglomerate Embracer announced Thursday that it has agreed to sell Gearbox Entertainment, the studio behind the Borderlands games, to Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two for $460 million.

The deal makes a lot of sense; Take-Two has been the publisher for Borderlands through its 2K Games label since long before Gearbox was acquired by Embracer in 2021. In its press release, 2K said the next Borderlands game was in active development at Gearbox.

As part of the deal, Take-Two acquires the Borderlands franchise and its spinoff series Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, as well as the Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem series. The studios acquired by Take-Two are the Gearbox Software mothership in Frisco, Texas, as well as Gearbox Montréal and Gearbox Studio Quebec.

“As a significant long-term Embracer Group shareholder, I believe in the strategy for the Embracer Group going forward and am completely convinced that this transaction is the best possible scenario and an obvious net positive arrangement for Embracer Group, for Take-Two and, of course, for Gearbox Entertainment,” said Gearbox founder Randy Pitchford. “My primary interest is always Gearbox, including our talent and our customers. I want to personally ensure fans of our games that this arrangement will ensure that the experiences we have in development at Gearbox will be the best it can possibly be.”

Embracer is hanging on to a few parts of the Gearbox empire: Gearbox Publishing San Francisco (which well be renamed), including the publishing rights to the Remnant games and Hyper Light Breaker; Cryptic Studios, the massively multiplayer specialist, with its games Neverwinter Online and Star Trek Online; and support studios Lost Boys Interactive and Captured Dimensions.

Though Gearbox Publishing San Francisco is still under Embracer, the company confirmed to Polygon that it has laid off an unspecified number of employees “not tied to the development” of Gearbox games. The layoffs appear to impact marketing, communications, and other portions of the company.

“The Embracer Group will continue to report on their restructuring program that impacted some parts of Gearbox today that are not tied to the development of Gearbox Software games,” a spokesperson told Polygon. “Thank you for granting us the space to remain focused on our people and in our handling of the situation with compassion and manage the process, balancing between our present duty and a commitment to our future.”

For Embracer, the sale of Gearbox — one of its most prized assets — is the next step in a deep cost-cutting and restructuring process the company began last year after a reported $2 billion deal fell through. As part of its restructuring, Embracer laid off at least 900 people. Prior to its financial difficulties, the Swedish group, which began life as Nordic Games, had been on a wild acquisition spree that included the purchase of board game giant Asmodee, Square Enix’s Western studios and franchises including Tomb Raider, and the media rights for The Lord of the Rings.

Embracer also announced Thursday that it had completed the sale of another of its biggest studio groups, Saber Interactive, which it acquired in 2020. Saber’s founder Matthew Karch bought back the main Saber Interactive studio and several subsidiaries for $247 million, while Embracer retained Metro developer 4A Games, Aspyr, and others. Saber has the right to acquire 4A and pinball specialist Zen Studios within a certain time period, although publishing rights for the Metro games will stay with Embracer’s subsidiary Plaion. Saber is reportedly still collaborating with Embracer on the troubled remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Update: This story has been updated to include news concerning layoffs at Gearbox Publishing, along with a statement from the company.

[ad_2]

Oli Welsh

Source link

March 28, 2024
Saber Interactive may escape Embracer’s death hug and become a private company

[ad_1]

Saber Interactive has reportedly found an exit strategy from the death grip of its parent company, Embracer Group AB. Bloomberg reported Thursday that “a group of private investors” will buy the studio in a deal worth roughly $500 million. Saber would then become a private company with about 3,500 employees.

Engadget emailed a spokesperson from Saber for confirmation about the alleged buyout. The studio declined to comment.

The alleged agreement would be one of Embracer’s most significant cost-cutting moves since the collapse of a reported $2 billion deal with a group backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Some criticized the imperiled deal as the gaming equivalent of “sportswashing,” using popular sporting acquisitions and partnerships to boost beleaguered governments’ global images. That followed US intelligence’s conclusion that the Saudi regime murdered The Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi in late 2018.

Other cost-cutting moves at Embracer have included laying off about 900 employees in September, cutting another 50 or so jobs at Chorus developer Fishlabs and implementing more layoffs at Tiny Tina’s Wonderland developer Lost Boys Interactive, Beamdog, Crystal Dynamics and Saber subsidiary New World Interactive. Embracer also closed Saints Row studio Volition Games and Campfire Cabal.

LucasArts / Aspyr

According to Bloomberg, Saber’s sale won’t affect the studio’s role in developing an upcoming Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) remake. That game has already changed hands once: One of Saber’s Eastern European studios took over from Aspyr Media in the summer of 2022.

Aspyr had reportedly already been working on the game for years before providing a demo for Lucasfilm and Sony in June 2022; a week later, Aspyr fired its design director and art director. (Reports of the KOTOR demo costing a disproportionate amount of time and money may indicate a possible reason for the fallout.) By late that summer, Saber had taken over the development of the highly anticipated — and indefinitely delayed — remake.

Embracer bought Saber for $525 million in 2020 as it scooped up gaming studios left and right. It acquired at least 27 companies during that period, folding some of them (Demiurge Studios and New World Interactive) into Saber. Bloomberg reports that the deal to sell Saber to private investors includes an option to “bring along multiple Embracer subsidiaries.”

One studio that’s far too big to be included in this transaction is Borderlands developer Gearbox Entertainment. However, Kotaku reported Thursday that Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford told staff this week that a decision about the studio’s future had been made. He allegedly said he’d be able to share more details with them next month.

In the meantime, a cloud of uncertainty envelops Gearbox — and Embracer’s other remaining studios. “I’ve personally been looking for roles elsewhere not just due to the Embracer layoff fears, but due to pay,” an anonymous developer reportedly said to Kotaku. “Vague and in a holding pattern is definitely par for the course at the moment and has been for most of 2023.”

[ad_2]

Will Shanklin

Source link

February 29, 2024
Kotaku’s Opinions For The Week November 18, 2023

[ad_1]

Gamers are a passionate bunch, and we’re no exception. These are the week’s most interesting perspectives on the wild, wonderful, and sometimes weird world of video game news.

6 Things To Know Before Starting Persona 5 Tactica

This Is What It Looks Like When A Massive Video Game Publisher Messes Up

Screenshot: Embracer / Kotaku

This is Lars Wingefors, the CEO of Embracer, a Swedish holding company that owns multiple video game publishers, dozens of studios, and employs over 16,500 people. Or at least it used to. Embracer has been laying off hundreds, canceling projects, and closing studios as it reckons with deals that fell through, ambitious bets on big games, and an unprecedented acquisition spree that saw the investor group hoover up everything it could, from the studio behind Deus Ex to the license for The Lord of the Rings. One company to rule them all. That seemed to be the extent of the strategy. Read More

Kotaku Asks: Who Got Snubbed At The Game Awards Nominations?

Photo: Kevin Winter (Getty Images)

This week, creator and host of The Game Awards, Geoff Keighley, revealed which games are in the running for prizes at his showcase in December. Dozens of games were named across over 30 categories. What was missing? Read More

Persona 5 Tactica Tries To Make Up For The Series’ Homophobia

Image: Atlus / Kotaku

I love Persona 5, but over the years, Atlus’ stylish, supposedly socially-conscious RPG hasn’t loved me. Queer Persona fans know the series to be fraught, and even the most passionate among us treat it like the fun uncle who claims to love everyone and still says something extremely out of pocket each holiday. I figured Persona 5 Tactica, the tactical spin-off launching on November 17, would follow all the previous games and find some way to throw a jab at queer people for no reason. But after years of feeling like one of my favorite series has been trying to push me out, Tactica opened the door for me, if only for a moment. Read More

Dear Video Game Industry, Please Name A Woman

Photo: Dean Drobot (Shutterstock)

It’s been nearly a decade since GamerGate, the misogynistic game industry tantrum that harassed women under the guise of demanding journalistic ethics—yet 2023 has felt like we’re not that far past it at all. Read More

Modern Warfare III Multiplayer Is A Helluva Nostalgia Trip

Image: Activision

Say what you will about Modern Warfare III—it was developed in a confusing rush, hence why its campaign mostly sucks, and it’s currently the worst-rated Call of Duty game in the franchise’s 20-year history—but god damn, does its multiplayer make me feel like I’m in college again. Read More

Crash Team Rumble’s Latest Cameo Makes Me Want A New Spyro Game

Image: Activision / Kotaku

I liked Crash Team Rumble. I even said as much on this very website when the brawler MOBA launched back in June. But man, seeing them add Spyro, Crash’s flying, fire-breathing, OG PlayStation platformer contemporary to the roster just makes me wish we had a new Spyro the Dragon game. Read More

[ad_2]

Source link

November 18, 2023
Sony Deletes Mentions Of Troubled Star Wars: KotOR PS5 Remake, Hides Trailer

[ad_1]

Image: Aspyr Media / Embracer Group

A teaser for a Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake coming to PlayStation 5 nearly stole the show at Sony’s September 2021 showcase. But reports surfaced last year that the project was already in trouble. Now Star Wars fans have noticed that Sony recently deleted tweets about the game and has hidden the trailer from its official YouTube channel.

Unboxing The Baldur’s Gate 3 Collector’s Edition

Word that the teaser trailer had been removed from PlayStation’s channel first began to spread on September 28 on the Gaming Leaks and Rumors subreddit. Twitter user Crusader3456 later shared a thread showing that Sony’s tweets about the teaser from the original 2021 PlayStation Showcase had also been deleted. The only official mention left appears to be a single tweet promoting multiple games from the livestream.

Screenshot: Sony / Kotaku

It’s possible the highly anticipated KOTOR remake is still alive and this is just some weirdness on the part of Sony’s social media department. It also might be the case that the project, which debuted as a PS5 exclusive, has all but been canceled amid ongoing development issues and massive budget cuts at parent publisher Embracer. Sony and Embracer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bloomberg reported in July 2022 that the developers has spent a significant amount of time and resources on a proof-of-concept demo that failed to past muster at a review meeting. Several senior leads were let go from the project, and the following month development on the KOTOR remake shifted to Saber Interactive in Europe (Aspyr is based in Texas).

Fast-forward a year, and parent company Embracer is instituting cuts across its sprawling portfolio, including canceling games and shutting down entire studios like Volition, after reportedly losing out on a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia. Aspyr also announced in June that it would bail on shipping a promised DLC pack for its Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 remaster on Switch. A fan is now suing.

A successful remake of KOTOR would be a lynchpin project for any publisher, especially as new Star Wars shows flood Disney+ every year. It would also be an incredibly ambitious and challenging endeavor for even the best studio. It’s not yet clear if Embracer has given up hope on the project. Fans certainly still haven’t.

[ad_2]

Ethan Gach

Source link

September 28, 2023