4 ms·

Isn't that the company that bought the IP to a bunch of games franchises just to kill all ongoing development? Ironic.

beloch 1y ago
Embracer group has been around for a while but, in recent years, they acquired far more companies than they could realistically do anything with because they thought they could flip them for a profit. They failed and had to take a hatchet to much of what they acquired, pissing off fans of companies that were either completely obliterated or hollowed out and outsourced. >* Our mission is to have an archive of physical games as extensive as possible. With the purpose of contributing to the joint preservation of video game culture and history. Now they're looking for donations to a private collection that will not be open to the public. They likely plan to sell the collection the highest bidder at some point. If they can't find a buyer, they'll bin the lot of it rather than continue to pay storage costs. The employees working for them may believe in what they're doing, but Embracer group now has a history of pulling the rug out from under such people. -------------- Edit: The archive is based in Sweden, which has a really hopping museum scene. They could make a for-profit museum with these materials and a few talented museologists and it would likely do well. They mention no such plans and that's very odd.
- moogly 1y ago
  > Sweden, which has a really hopping museum scene Citation needed. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/09/25/swedish-museums-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet_6139584_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/09/25/s... https://swedenherald.com/article/tough-economic-situation-for-museums-and-stages https://swedenherald.com/article/tough-economic-situation-fo... For-profit museums aren't really a thing in Sweden either, because you won't be making a profit, unless you're the Vasa Museum, but even that is struggling.
  - beloch 1y ago
    Museums are sort of like farms in that you can lose money every year for entire lifetimes and still have a tremendously valuable farm. Like land, the past is an appreciating asset. That's big, traditional museums. I suppose it should be no surprise that the smaller museums are still struggling in the post-covid era. I based my opinion on visits prior to the pandemic, so I'm out of date. Hopefully the popularity of museums in Sweden will rebound.
awkwardpotato 1y ago
Yes, they're also currently $2 billion dollars in debt and are attempting to split into 3 separate companies. "Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends" - The legal successor to Embracer. For their triple A studios and major ip rights (they currently own the rights to LOTR-based games) "Coffee Stain & Friends" - For their indie studios. (Named after their most successful indie studio, the people behind Goat Simulator and Satisfactory) Asmodee - Their board and card game group. They took out a 900 million euro "financial agreement" with Embracer to pay back part of their debts. Officially a separate entity as of February. [0] https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-announces-its-intention-to-transform-into-three-standalone-publicly-listed-entities-at-nasdaq-stockholm/ https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-announces-its-i...
- smcin 1y ago
  Embracer acquired Asmodee 12/2021, made a spree of other debt-funded accquisitions packaged and prepped to sell the whole company to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund in 2022, but that deal fell through in 2023 and Embracer reportedly incurred €2 billion losses, laid off 8% of 17,000 Asmodee employees, then subsequently spun Asmodee out (now the board and card game unit) saddled with €900m Euro debt to pay off Embracer's actions. The Asmodee spinout officially became a separate entity as of 2/2025, and has an 18 month deadline to refinance that debt. Fitch rates this BB- [0], which apparently implies >6% probability of default (at current interest rates). Asmodee will presumably achieve that by jacking up prices on existing (boardgame and cardgame) IP, and/or killing stuff that doesn't pay much, and/or refreshing newer versions of existing IP (like Sony Games' 2024 attempt to do forced relicensing on existing PS owners' libraries). Right after the acquisition, Asmodee silently delisted beloved Steam titles like 'Pandemic' in early 2022 [1][2], without even notifying existing owners; and only 4 years after it had been released in 2018. Supposedly this after-sale revocation violates consumer laws in California and Australia (and maybe elsewhere); if Steam ever pulls the trigger on removing them we get to find out; meanwhile back up your binaries. Asmodee also acquired the superb online site BoardGameArena.com in 2021, cofounders Grégory and Emmanuel both left in 2023 at the height of Embracer's pillaging. I commented previously on Asmodee (mostly pre-Wingefors) milking the awful digital implementation of Terraforming Mars (which should have been a huge hit) for like 6 years without any meaningful playtesting or bugfixing [3][4]. Here are some Redditors helpfully filling in the gaps on Wingefors "I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism" token gesture towards humility [5]. Wingefors' behavior in divesting Asmodee and sticking it with much of the debt for his/ Embracer's failed Covid-era acquisition spree feels something like Bruce Willis strapping plastic explosive to the monitor and chair and dropping it down a 36-storey elevator shaft. Make impressive noise. Or like Restaurant at the End of the Universe when they crash the starship into the sun. Given Lars Wingefors' trail of digital tears, why he is now begging private individuals to donate their physical copies of old videogames to a private physical archive noone can access or visit, to make him somehow look like a community-minded benefactor, is bizarre. He could simply donate to an existing online archive. [0]: https://www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/fitch-assigns-asmodee-final-bb-rating-on-finalisation-of-recapitalisation-20-02-2025 https://www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/fitc... [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29968054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29968054 [2]: https://delistedgames.com/pandemic-the-board-game/ https://delistedgames.com/pandemic-the-board-game/ [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42303399 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42303399 [4]: https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraformingMarsGame/comments/1443iff/is_the_digital_version_worth_to_buy_after_the_20/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraformingMarsGame/comments/1443i... [5]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1cb93xy/embracer_ceo_lars_wingefors_im_sure_i_deserve_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1cb93xy/embracer_ceo...
2OEH8eoCRo0 1y ago
They killed Deus Ex :(
- zelphirkalt 1y ago
  News to me. What did they do to kill Deus Ex?
  - 2OEH8eoCRo0 1y ago
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-29/embracer-group-cancels-deus-ex-video-game https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-29/embracer-...

Embracer group has been around for a while but, in recent years, they acquired far more companies than they could realistically do anything with because they thought they could flip them for a profit. They failed and had to take a hatchet to much of what they acquired, pissing off fans of companies that were either completely obliterated or hollowed out and outsourced. >* Our mission is to have an archive of physical games as extensive as possible. With the purpose of contributing to the joint preservation of video game culture and history. Now they're looking for donations to a private collection that will not be open to the public. They likely plan to sell the collection the highest bidder at some point. If they can't find a buyer, they'll bin the lot of it rather than continue to pay storage costs. The employees working for them may believe in what they're doing, but Embracer group now has a history of pulling the rug out from under such people. -------------- Edit: The archive is based in Sweden, which has a really hopping museum scene. They could make a for-profit museum with these materials and a few talented museologists and it would likely do well. They mention no such plans and that's very odd.

moogly 1y ago
> Sweden, which has a really hopping museum scene Citation needed. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/09/25/swedish-museums-are-struggling-to-make-ends-meet_6139584_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/09/25/s... https://swedenherald.com/article/tough-economic-situation-for-museums-and-stages https://swedenherald.com/article/tough-economic-situation-fo... For-profit museums aren't really a thing in Sweden either, because you won't be making a profit, unless you're the Vasa Museum, but even that is struggling.
- beloch 1y ago
  Museums are sort of like farms in that you can lose money every year for entire lifetimes and still have a tremendously valuable farm. Like land, the past is an appreciating asset. That's big, traditional museums. I suppose it should be no surprise that the smaller museums are still struggling in the post-covid era. I based my opinion on visits prior to the pandemic, so I'm out of date. Hopefully the popularity of museums in Sweden will rebound.

awkwardpotato 1y ago

Yes, they're also currently $2 billion dollars in debt and are attempting to split into 3 separate companies. "Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends" - The legal successor to Embracer. For their triple A studios and major ip rights (they currently own the rights to LOTR-based games) "Coffee Stain & Friends" - For their indie studios. (Named after their most successful indie studio, the people behind Goat Simulator and Satisfactory) Asmodee - Their board and card game group. They took out a 900 million euro "financial agreement" with Embracer to pay back part of their debts. Officially a separate entity as of February. [0] https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-announces-its-intention-to-transform-into-three-standalone-publicly-listed-entities-at-nasdaq-stockholm/ https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-announces-its-i...

smcin 1y ago
Embracer acquired Asmodee 12/2021, made a spree of other debt-funded accquisitions packaged and prepped to sell the whole company to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund in 2022, but that deal fell through in 2023 and Embracer reportedly incurred €2 billion losses, laid off 8% of 17,000 Asmodee employees, then subsequently spun Asmodee out (now the board and card game unit) saddled with €900m Euro debt to pay off Embracer's actions. The Asmodee spinout officially became a separate entity as of 2/2025, and has an 18 month deadline to refinance that debt. Fitch rates this BB- [0], which apparently implies >6% probability of default (at current interest rates). Asmodee will presumably achieve that by jacking up prices on existing (boardgame and cardgame) IP, and/or killing stuff that doesn't pay much, and/or refreshing newer versions of existing IP (like Sony Games' 2024 attempt to do forced relicensing on existing PS owners' libraries). Right after the acquisition, Asmodee silently delisted beloved Steam titles like 'Pandemic' in early 2022 [1][2], without even notifying existing owners; and only 4 years after it had been released in 2018. Supposedly this after-sale revocation violates consumer laws in California and Australia (and maybe elsewhere); if Steam ever pulls the trigger on removing them we get to find out; meanwhile back up your binaries. Asmodee also acquired the superb online site BoardGameArena.com in 2021, cofounders Grégory and Emmanuel both left in 2023 at the height of Embracer's pillaging. I commented previously on Asmodee (mostly pre-Wingefors) milking the awful digital implementation of Terraforming Mars (which should have been a huge hit) for like 6 years without any meaningful playtesting or bugfixing [3][4]. Here are some Redditors helpfully filling in the gaps on Wingefors "I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism" token gesture towards humility [5]. Wingefors' behavior in divesting Asmodee and sticking it with much of the debt for his/ Embracer's failed Covid-era acquisition spree feels something like Bruce Willis strapping plastic explosive to the monitor and chair and dropping it down a 36-storey elevator shaft. Make impressive noise. Or like Restaurant at the End of the Universe when they crash the starship into the sun. Given Lars Wingefors' trail of digital tears, why he is now begging private individuals to donate their physical copies of old videogames to a private physical archive noone can access or visit, to make him somehow look like a community-minded benefactor, is bizarre. He could simply donate to an existing online archive. [0]: https://www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/fitch-assigns-asmodee-final-bb-rating-on-finalisation-of-recapitalisation-20-02-2025 https://www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/fitc... [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29968054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29968054 [2]: https://delistedgames.com/pandemic-the-board-game/ https://delistedgames.com/pandemic-the-board-game/ [3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42303399 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42303399 [4]: https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraformingMarsGame/comments/1443iff/is_the_digital_version_worth_to_buy_after_the_20/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraformingMarsGame/comments/1443i... [5]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1cb93xy/embracer_ceo_lars_wingefors_im_sure_i_deserve_a/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1cb93xy/embracer_ceo...

2OEH8eoCRo0 1y ago

They killed Deus Ex :(

zelphirkalt 1y ago
News to me. What did they do to kill Deus Ex?
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 1y ago
  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-29/embracer-group-cancels-deus-ex-video-game https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-29/embracer-...