I’m sure most people didn’t really know who Embracer Group was until they acquired Tomb Raider from Square Enix in 2022. And, although they have a long history, in the past three to four years, they only seem to be acquiring studios, and also killing studios.
Before Embracer, there was Nordic Games Licensing, and THQ Nordic, names that are probably a bit more familiar. But the history of this company as Embracer is relatively short, as they continue to speak about themselves as if this is an entity that has been around forever, and also fairly well-known.
Such as recently, when they announced that Embracer Group was coming to an end, and splitting into three companies, they talk about this news, and themselves, as if they’ve done something. As if they’re major players in gaming. But, if you look back, the only thing of note that Embracer Group has done is destroy the studios behind Saints Row, Time Splitters, and now also Alone in the Dark (there are more studios than this that they’ve killed). All this, while making cuts to staff at Crystal Dynamics, and cancelling a new Deus Ex game, while selling off Saber Interactive and Gearbox Studios (among many other things).
It’s starting to look like Embracer is a studio-laundering company.
They say, “We can’t make all the games we want to make.” And I continue to ask the question, “what games have you made?“
Sure, there was THQ Nordic, but that’s a thing of the past now. This is Embracer we’re talking about.
What exactly have you done, as a company?
It couldn’t possibly be about inflating their stocks, since they’re actually sinking themselves as we speak.
Source: https://companiesmarketcap.com/embracer/marketcap
Is Embracer just a bunch of amateurs with delusions of grandeur? I don’t know, probably.
But, this speaks to the gaming business as a whole, right now, and it would be unfair to say Embracer is the only company that’s conducting themselves like a studio-slaughter-house.
It would be unfair to write all of this without also mentioning that Microsoft, an actually well-known company, has and is killing other beloved studios. And they’re doing it entirely to inflate their stocks.
In a world where the poor and the middle-class can’t seem to get a grip on making enough money to be stable, we have these companies in entertainment that are grasping at straws for every imagined extra dollar that they can. And some of them, such as Embracer, are failing miserably.
And yet, we have to sit here, and watch as the studios behind our favorite games are murdered in broad daylight, while they attempt to restructure, to cover their tracks, to rehabilitate their image.
Is Tomb Raider next?
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