Embracer Group, who you may know from its adventures in acquiring various studios and franchises a few years back and subsequently closing a lot of studios, has announced its intent to revive multiple of its beloved IP through partnerships. CEO Lars Wingefors named Deus Ex, Saints Row, Thief, TimeSplitters, and Red Faction as examples of series that could be revived through licensing.
Embracer Group is a holdings company originally founded by Nordic Games in 2011. Following its acquisition of various THQ licenses as a result of the publisher’s bankruptcy (including its trademark), the video games publishing arm rebranded itself to THQ Nordic, and later became a publicly traded company under the banner “Embracer Group” in 2019. The Swedish company has spent over $8 billion on acquisitions of studios such as Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, 4A Games, and Tarsier Studios, and media companies such as The Lord of the Rings owner Middle Earth Enterprises and Dark Horse Comics.
During its latest earnings call, Wingefors reaffirmed Embracer Group’s intent to leverage its most popular IP, naming Tomb Raider – of which there are two in active development, The Lord of the Rings and Kingdom Come: Deliverance – following the exceptional 2 – as franchises it is fostering in-house. This follows the announcement of two new Tomb Raider games, and the newly revealed Middle Earth-set RPG, and a new “Kingdom Come adventure” from Warhorse Studio.
Wingefors also claimed however that “Apart from the largest IPs we will more actively be exploring external partnership around our roster of other well-known IPs such as Saints Row, Legacy of Kain, Deus Ex, Red Faction, The Mask, Thief, TimeSplitters, amongst many others.”
Embracer Group has received criticism from the industry and audiences over the years for its handling of legacy IP and studios, with Saints Row developer Volition being closed after the heavily criticized 2022 reboot, and multiple rounds of layoffs and project cancellations across studios such as Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal. In this time, teams such as Aspyr have released remasters of classic Tomb Raider and The Legacy of Kain games, allowing new players to engage with the series for the first time.
Although it received some mixed reception, the recently released Legacy of Kain: Ascendance shows that Embracer Group has already begun the work in some capacity to keep its legacy franchises alive while playing things relatively safe. If publishers like Konami have shown with the thoughtful revival its Silent Hill franchise, there is a path back to success if Embracer plays its cards right and finds the right teams befitting of its beloved IP, once it’s willing to take a few risks in the process.
