OUR STORY
NOW to 1990
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This year we welcome two new operative groups, Freemode and Crystal Dynamics – Eidos, opening new opportunities within the Entertainment & Services segment and respectively expanding possibilities within AAA development. The most notable IP acquisition during the year is undoubtedly the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
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We are happy to welcome four new Operative Groups. Gearbox, Easybrain, Asmodee and Dark Horse Media. This means that we strengthen our competence in, among other things, interactive entertainment, mobile games, board games, comic book publishing and production in film & TV.
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We welcome two new Operative Groups. Saber Interactive is a U.S-based developer and publisher of video games and DECA Games is an indie publisher completely focused on live operations and games as a service.
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We continued our M&A strategy with the acquisition of a number of game publishers, development studios, game IPs and other assets. Notable acquisitions included legendary game studio Piranha Bytes, racing game developer Milestone, Darksiders developer Gunfire Games and Tarsier Studios, the developers behind Little Nightmares. Another notable acquisition was Goodbye Kansas Game Invest renamed Amplifier Games and announced as the Group’s fourth operational group, focusing on early-stage game development ventures.
The brand mix-up between the parent company and the subsidiary THQ Nordic GmbH has been an issue and the parent company finally becomes Embracer Group AB. We think it fits well since our mission is to embrace great companies, great people and great ideas. (We save the list of 200 other names for possible future needs…)
We were not idle this year, either, but acquired Coffee Stain, Koch Media / Deep Silver, Volition, Bugbear, Handygames and Lavapotion.
The family grows with acquisitions of Pieces Interactive, Black Forrest Games and Experiment 101.
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Nordic Games, both the mother company in Sweden and the Viennese subsidiary, are renamed as THQ Nordic. The move is done to capitalize on the stronger THQ-trademark, and before becoming a publicly listed company.
In November 2016, the company became a public company listed on Nasdaq First North Stockholm, Sweden.
Nordic Games acquires the American games brand THQ and the story behind the THQ Nordic AB company begins.
Nordic games acquire a lot of strong IP:s from THQ Inc, included Red Faction, Darksiders, MX vs. ATV, Destroy All Humans, Titan Quest and most notably, the Darksiders franchise.
In June 2011, Nordic Games Holding acquired the assets of insolvent publisher JoWooD Entertainment and its subsidiaries. And here is where the beginning of the Embracer Group journey starts for real.
Game Outlet starts the publishing brand Nordic Games, publishing video games in niches that lacks games in the mid and low prize sector. This is the hay days of karaoke games and Nordic games hit big with the We Sing franchise on Nintendo Wii in 2009.
After some turbulent and hard working years, during which the games business is transformed, Lars Wingefors restarts the company with a new business model. Under the name Game Outlet Europe the company leaves first day releases behind and focuses on trading all other games all over Europe. He also sells these games to a mass-market outside of the games stores. It turns out well, and the company generates a good and stable profit.
The 22 year old Lars Wingefors operates Swedens largest independent games wholesale business, but margins are low. He brings experienced economist Erik Stenberg into the business to help attract investors and soon, British dotcom startup Gameplay acquires Lars Wingefors company for 8 million pounds, in shares. Sadly, the deal is made the same weekend that the dotcom bubble starts to implode.
Four years after selling his first video game, Lars Wingefors is a high school drop out who operates a whole sales business in Karlstad with a revenue of 100 millions skr, about ten million GBP. ”I am still surprised this has happened”, he tells the local daily.
At 15 Lars has Swedens largest mail order comics business, and thinks everything is going grand, when all of a sudden his eyes fall on some used video games on a shelf in the comics store he frequently visits. They seem to sell for a lot more than comics, what if he should try that out instead?
Turning 13 Lars Wingefors realizes something. Growing up with a single mother in a rural area, he is far from poor but also far from rich. ”If I am going to have any money, I have to fix it on my own”, he tells himself and turnes his collection of Lee Falks comic The Phantom into the start of a used comics business.
Embracer Group is a global group of creative and entrepreneurial businesses in PC/console, mobile and board games and other related media. The Group has an extensive catalog of over 900 owned or controlled franchises.
With its head office based in Karlstad, Sweden, Embracer Group has a global presence through its twelve operative groups: THQ Nordic, PLAION, Coffee Stain, Amplifier Game Invest, Saber Interactive, DECA Games, Gearbox Entertainment, Easybrain, Asmodee, Dark Horse, Freemode and Crystal Dynamics – Eidos. The Group has 139 internal game development studios and is engaging more than 16,500 employees in more than 40 countries.
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