Saber Interactive confirmed to split from Embracer Group
There have been omens and portents enough, now things are official: Saber Interactive and the Swedish entertainment giant Embracer Group are going their own ways. Beacon Interactive, a company controlled by Saber co-founder Matthew Karch, acquired Saber Interactive and many of its subsidiaries from Embracer for a price of $247 million USD.
Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors hailed this move as a “win-win solution for Embracer and the parts of Saber that now will leave us.” He stated that both companies are going to be in much stronger positions and emphasized that this divestment allows Embracer to cease operations inside Russia, which the board had decided upon a while ago due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Embracer Group is splitting for Saber Interactive.
Embracer Group
Karch echoed the sentiment and stated that both parties would continue to work together on a number of projects. “Over the past four years, I have been proud to be part of Embracer’s amazing transformation into one of the leading game companies in the world,” he said. “As part of the company’s efforts to reorganize for a changed industry and geopolitical challenges, we jointly felt it was the right decision for both Embracer and the core of Saber to part ways. This divestment leaves both parties in much better positions to grow our respective businesses.”
Embracer and Saber have divided up a number of subsidiaries among themselves as part of this amicable divorce. Saber will retain possession of IGIC, Fractured Byte, Mad Head Games, New World Interactive, Nimble Giant Entertainment, Sandbox Strategies, Slipgate Ironworks, and 3D Realms.
Embracer will continue to command 34BigThings, 4A Games, Aspyr, Beamdog, Demiurge Studios, Shiver, Snapshot Games, Tripwire Interactive, Tuxedo Labs, and Zen Studios, which previously fell under Saber’s umbrella and will now going to be integrated into Embracer.
However, Saber is granted a timed-limited option to acquire both 4A Games and Zen Studios at a fixed price, should it so desire. Embracer emphasized that its subsidiary PLAION would keep the rights to the Metro IP even if Saber decided to exercise its acquisition rights.
Saber takes 38 ongoing development projects with it to independence, while Embracer keeps 14 projects. Among the latter are Killing Floor 3, Teardown, 4A Games’ triple-A project, and at least three other triple-A games. Saber and Embracer will continue to work jointly on two projects.
It’s unclear where the highly-anticipated and unfortunate Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake has ended up, which was under development at Saber. Saber’s biggest launch of 2024 is expected to be Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2.
The transaction is expected to be closed “soon” as all conditions have been met.
