In addition to Limited Run Games, Embracer Group has purchased numerous other companies
Tripwire Interactive
Embracer Group AB (”Embracer”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Saber Interactive, has entered into an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares of award-winning US developer and publisher Tripwire Interactive from its four current owners. Tripwire Interactive is well-known for the Killing Floor and Rising Storm series and their recent best-seller Maneater, as well as their publishing division Tripwire Presents.
Acquired through Embracer’s wholly owned subsidiary Saber Interactive Inc. and will be part of the Saber Interactive operative group
“Tripwire is a unique studio. Since their founding in 2005, they have grown, through tremendous leadership and vision, into one of the last great independent developers. I have looked up to Tripwire as an example of how to design and execute on games. Saber has Tripwire to thank for many of our own successes and I am proud to welcome them into our family,” said Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive.
“We’ve known Saber for a while now and are really excited about the opportunity to leverage everything they have to offer. Together we are going to be able to deliver more new Tripwire titles, more often than ever before, as well as ramp up the published titles. We look forward to creating a lot more great games that people will love to play,” said Alan Wilson, Co-Founder and CEO of Tripwire Interactive.
Background and rationale
Founded in 2005 in Roswell, GA, Tripwire has continually developed successful titles, with the Killing Floor series boasting over 35 million players, Rising Storm series over 14 million players and Maneater over 16 million players. Their publishing division, Tripwire Presents, continues to be a major growth area that has strong partnerships with various developers. They recently launched Chivalry 2 which has sold over 2 million units and upcoming titles include Espire 2 (VR) and Deceive Inc. The company has today grown to 113 employees in its Georgia office.
Co-founder and CEO Alan Wilson will stay on in his role and continue to run Tripwire along with Bill Munk, Co-founder and Lead Combat Designer, and David Hensley, Design Director. Co-Founder John Gibson will be pursuing opportunities outside of Tripwire.
The acquisition adds an extremely experienced development group with its collection of four strong franchises: Maneater, Killing Floor, Rising Storm, and Red Orchestra. The group has an exciting AAA title in production, as well as a rapidly-growing publishing division.
Within the Embracer Group, Tripwire Interactive will operate as a subsidiary under the Saber Interactive operative group. Post transaction business will remain as usual with the team focused on developing future projects.
Purchase Price
The parties have agreed not to disclose specific terms due to commercial reasons. The terms and conditions for the acquisition are in line with previous Embracer transactions.
Singtrix
Embracer Group AB (”Embracer”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Freemode, has entered into an agreement to acquire Singtrix LLC (“Singtrix”) from its founders.
Acquired through Embracer’s subsidiary Embracer Freemode Iconic Holding Inc. and will be part of the operative group Embracer Freemode.
Singtrix, based in the Los Angeles area, is an award-winning creator of industry leading vocal processing effects technology for karaoke, gaming, and entertainment. Through the transaction, Freemode gains a world class group of entrepreneurs and creators, adding to its innovation group in the US. The Singtrix team has a 25-year history of developing iconic music games and is noted as the first to patent the core technology behind the Guitar Hero Franchise.
“The Singtrix team is one of the most highly regarded innovators in music gaming, vocal processing, and entertainment. Their proven track record behind groundbreaking mass music franchises and inspiring singing experiences is without parallel and makes them a perfect fit for Freemode’s plan to vastly expand its entertainment offerings”, says Lee Guinchard, CEO of Freemode.
Background and rationale
Singtrix creator and CEO John Devecka is a music gaming pioneer. In 1996, John patented and invented the first music video game, MTV Drumscape, which became a top-10 attraction in arcades. His foundational music gaming patent portfolio was ultimately acquired by Activision for its smash hit Guitar Hero, where he worked with top gaming and development studios introducing new music gaming technology. After leaving Activision, Devecka reinvented karaoke with Singtrix and its industry leading studio quality vocal effects. Together, with his co-founders Al Roque and Eric Berkowitz, the Singtrix team plan to bring the next pop culture musical experience to the world.
Through the acquisition, Freemode welcomes a highly innovative team of 5 and its extensive network that will strengthen Freemode’s game development and present new opportunities for music and audio gaming products. Management expects that Singtrix will expand its vocal technology platform into a broad range of new music games, streaming, and mobile franchises. In addition, Singtrix’s presence in Los Angeles further builds on Freemode’s footprint in the US and provides a new major hub of entertainment creator talent on the West Coast.
Purchase Price
The parties have agreed not to disclose specific terms due to commercial reasons. The terms and conditions for the acquisition are in line with previous Embracer transactions.
Tuxedo Labs
Embracer Group AB (”Embracer”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Saber Interactive, has acquired 100 percent of the shares of Swedish developer Tuxedo Labs. Tuxedo Labs is best known for creating the hit voxel-based destruction PC game Teardown. Embracer adds Dennis Gustafsson, Tuxedo Labs’ founder and CTO, who is a highly technical visionary with a specialty in physics, and his team of 5.
Acquired through Embracer’s wholly owned subsidiary Embracer Group Lager 2 AB and will be part of the Saber Interactive operative group
“Tuxedo Labs has created revolutionary technology that opens up vast possibilities for emergent gameplay and user-created content. Their hit title Teardown has the potential to become the standard-bearing platform for physics simulation in games. Many of us at Saber and our subsidiary 3D Realms have worked with Dennis since the mid-2000’s. We are super excited to welcome Dennis, their CEO Marcus Dawson, and the rest of the Tuxedo Labs team into the Embracer family,” said Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive.
“This is a perfect fit for us because of our shared interests in physics-driven game design and Saber’s resources to help us achieve our long-term vision. We will now be able to rapidly expand and accelerate our plans for Teardown, including bringing it to new audiences, while simultaneously focusing on evolving voxel-based technology for our next generation of games,” said Dennis Gustafsson, founder of Tuxedo Labs.
Background and rationale
Founded in 2019 in Malmo, Sweden, Tuxedo Labs has six team members led by Dennis Gustafsson, a highly-technical visionary. Their first title, Teardown, has received universal critical acclaim since its initial release in Steam Early Access in 2020 and has built a thriving modding community. The game exited early access in April 2022 and has sold over a million copies on Steam to date.
Dennis Gustafsson is the founder of Tuxedo Labs and Chief Technology Officer; he recently brought on Marcus Dawson, former CEO of Illusion Labs, as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer. Gustafsson has a Master of Science degree in technological media from Linköpings University, and previously worked on the object-oriented physics engine Meqon and co-created the popular game Smash Hit in 2014 (200m downloads).
The acquisition adds a uniquely talented team focused on physics-based game technology and design. Within the Embracer Group, Tuxedo Labs will operate as a subsidiary under the Saber operating group. The acquisition further strengthens Saber’s presence within Sweden.Purchase Price
The parties have agreed not to disclose specific terms due to commercial reasons. The purchase price contains an upfront part and a long-term potential earn-out. The terms and conditions for the acquisition are in line with previous Embracer transactions.
Founder Dennis Gustafsson is committed to Tuxedo Labs and the company will focus on growing in Malmo, Sweden. Post transaction business will remain as usual, with the team focused on expanding Teardown.
Completion of the transaction
The transaction was completed on 1 July 2022.
Middle Earth Enterprises
Embracer Group AB (”Embracer”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Freemode, has entered into an agreement to acquire Middle-earth Enterprises, a division of The Saul Zaentz Company, which owns a vast intellectual property catalogue and worldwide rights to motion pictures, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks and stage productions relating to the iconic fantasy literary works The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as matching rights in other Middle-earth-related literary works authorized by the Tolkien Estate and HarperCollins, which have yet to be explored.
Acquired through Embracer’s subsidiary Embracer Freemode Iconic Holding Inc. and will be part of the operative group Embracer Freemode.
“I am truly excited to have The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, one of the world’s most epic fantasy franchises join the Embracer family, opening up more transmedia opportunities including synergies across our global group. I am thrilled to see what lies in the future for this IP with Freemode and Asmodee as a start within the group. Going forward, we also look forward to collaborating with both existing and new external licensees of our increasingly stronger IP portfolio,” says Lars Wingefors, Founder and Group CEO Embracer Group.
“We at the Zaentz Company have had the honor over the past half century of stewarding the Tolkien rights so that Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fans worldwide could enjoy award winning epic films, challenging video games, first rate theatre and merchandise of every variety. We could not be more thrilled that it is Embracer now taking up the responsibility and we are confident their group will take it to new heights and dimensions while maintaining homage to the spirit of these great literary works,“ says Marty Glick, COO of The Saul Zaentz Company.
Background and rationale
The Saul Zaentz Company based in Berkeley, California, US, was founded in 1976. It was originally set-up as a film production company, which produced award-winning films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The Saul Zaentz Company acquired its rights from the heirs and estate of J.R.R. Tolkien and HarperCollins Publishers, who maintain the print publication rights to J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary works. The Saul Zaentz Company first acquired the rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit in 1976, in an arrangement with United Artists to produce an animated version of The Lord of the Rings, to be directed by Ralph Bakshi. The film was released in 1978 and has become a cult classic. In 1998, The Saul Zaentz Company licensed New Line Cinema to enable director Peter Jackson’s live-action trilogies of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. The movies have grossed over USD 6 billion at the box office and won many Academy Awards.
Through its Middle-earth Enterprises division, The Saul Zaentz Company, inspired by a deep appreciation for the fictional world created by J.R.R. Tolkien, also has produced and licensed a wide variety of successful video games, board games, stage productions and merchandise based on The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit for more than forty-five years.
Embracer’s operative group Asmodee Group is already one of the most successful licensees of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit through board games and card games, having published over a dozen games with over 100 expansions since the release of The Lord of the Rings board game over 20 years ago, including classics such as The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game and The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth, a fully-cooperative, app-supported board game set in J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic land of Middle-earth.
Key upcoming works set in Middle-earth, in which Middle-earth Enterprises has financial interests, include the much-heralded Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power which will premiere on September 2, 2022, set thousands of years before The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; the animated movie The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (Warner Bros), set for release in 2024, and the mobile game The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth (Electronic Arts).
Other opportunities include exploring additional movies based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn and other characters from the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and continue to provide new opportunities for fans to explore this fictive world through merchandising and other experiences.
The acquisition of the rights is in line with Embracer’s IP-driven transmedia strategy. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are among the world’s largest, most enduring iconic entertainment franchises and birthed the fantasy genre.
Middle-earth Enterprises will be a part of the newly founded operative group Embracer Freemode. The company will continue to operate independently under the existing Middle-earth Enterprises leadership team, working closely with Embracer Freemode management and other Embracer operative groups to foster opportunities, growth and synergies within the Group to continue to build and expand the great franchise.
Purchase Price
The parties have agreed not to disclose specific terms of the transaction due to commercial reasons.
EMBRACER GROUP ANNOUNCES THE 11[TH] OPERATING GROUP: EMBRACER FREEMODE
Embracer Group AB (“Embracer”) today announced the formation of Embracer Freemode (“Freemode”), an operative group comprised of certain gaming and entertainment companies owned by Embracer. Freemode is led by CEO Lee Guinchard, a 30-year gaming veteran and entrepreneur. Freemode provides a global strategic, operational, and financial support ecosystem for its collective of small to mid-sized companies to achieve operational efficiency and effectively grow their businesses to fulfil their long-term goals. In addition, Freemode will expand its operating activities in the retro, classic, and heritage gaming category, as well as investing in iconic gaming & entertainment properties.
The newly formed operative group focuses on 6 broad and diverse business market segments including: Retro/Classic/Heritage Gaming & Entertainment, Game Development & Production, Devices, Gear & Collectables, Community & Ecommerce, New Idea & Technology Incubation and Production Services.
“With our announcement of Freemode, we demonstrate our continued commitment to diversified growth into new areas, ultimately preserving yesterday`s classics in addition to expanding further tomorrow’s gaming and entertainment experiences,” says Lars Wingefors, Embracer AB Group CEO.
Freemode strikes the ideal balance of independence with targeted levels of world class operational support, growth capital, and strategic guidance. The founders of acquired companies within this progressive ecosystem maintain autonomy and creative control, whilst also gaining the critical resources to scale.
“Creators by their nature are at the forefront of industry-leading innovation and disruption. Founders are empowered to realize their true creative vision. Ultimately, our goal is to provide our entrepreneur-led companies with the essential resources to deliver the most exciting entertainment experiences for fans around the world.” says Lee Guinchard, Freemode CEO.
CEO Lee Guinchard was co-founder & CEO of Aionic Labs Inc an ideation technology incubator located in Silicon Valley, California. He was also Studio Head of Red Octane Design and VP of Hardware at video game publisher Activision Blizzard for 11 years. While at Activision Blizzard, he oversaw hardware development, manufacturing, and compliance for multibillion dollar franchises such as Guitar Hero and Skylanders. Lee was also Founder and CEO of Joytech, a global video game accessory company, as well as Founder and Managing Director of LDA Distribution, a leading pan-European video game distributor. Both companies were acquired by Take 2 Interactive in 1999.
We are also proud to officially announce that we recently acquired Tatsujin which is Embracer’s first studio located in Japan. Tatsujin is led by Masahiro Yuge, one of the founders of the iconic arcade games studio Toaplan known for games such as Truxton, Snow Bros and Flying Shark. Acquiring the rights to the Toaplan catalogue separately in another deal means Tatsujin with several employees that once created the Toaplan games can now curate these classics and shepherd them into the future.
Freemode also acquired Bitwave Games, a Swedish studio with passion for retro games. With the backing of Freemode, Bitwave can expand the internal development team and build a publishing team. Bitwave will bring the highly regarded shoot ’em up games from Toaplan to PC and publish the NES/Famicom classic platformer Gimmick! on console and modern consoles in the west.
We are also excited to announce that we recently acquired Gioteck one Europe`s leading gaming accessory brands. Gioteck has a rich heritage spanning 2 decades. We believe there are great opportunities for Gioteck to collaborate within Embracer as well as the wider gaming industry.
Freemode is headquartered in Karlstad, Sweden with territory offices in Livermore, California, London, UK, and Hong Kong.
Freemode`s founding companies are existing Embracer owned businesses that previously reported directly to our group CEO & HQ in Karlstad, Sweden.
Freemode operates 12 Companies in 6 Countries and with a total of 509 Employees.
Founding Freemode Operating Group companies include Embracer companies: Tatsujin (Japan), Game Outlet Europe (Sweden), Clear River Games (Sweden), Quantic Lab (Romania), Bitwave Games (Sweden), Gioteck (United Kingdom), C77 Entertainment (USA) and Grimfrost (Sweden).
And of course
LIMITED RUN GAMES
Embracer Group AB (”Embracer”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Freemode has entered into an agreement to acquire Limited Run Games, Inc. (“Limited Run”) from its founders Josh Fairhurst and Douglas Bogart. Limited Run is a global leading collector-focused publisher of physical video games with a strong brand, established direct-to-consumer channels, and owns the development technology Carbon Engine that ports retro games to modern platforms.
Acquired through Embracer’s subsidiary Embracer Freemode Iconic Holding Inc. and will be part of the operative group Embracer Freemode.
”As an avid collector, I’ve admired Limited Run’s collectors’ editions. They’ve built a strong brand that resonates with players. We see opportunities for Limited Run to further grow their business with the Carbon Engine by bringing back classic games, and extend their footprint geographically through synergies with other companies within Embracer Group”, says Lars Wingefors, CEO of Embracer Group.
Background and rationale
Limited Run is the global leading brand within its nische/business, a premium publisher of physical games founded in 2015 by Josh Fairhurst (CEO) and Douglas Bogart (COO). The company is based in North Carolina, USA, and employs 69 persons. In an increasingly digital world, Limited Run has become the preferred partner for physical releases and lives by the motto: Forever Physical. Since its inception Limited Run has published over 1,000 digital games to physical release. Partners include niche indie studios as well as major publishers.
Limited Run is well-known for its collector’s editions and operates a direct-to-consumer model with a big loyal audience of collectors. The company evolved its business model with vinyl records and other merchandise, and distributed titles helping other publishers bring physical versions of their games to market through the Limited Run site and retailers.
In addition to the Limited Run brand and addressable audience, a strategic value is the Carbon Engine, an internally developed technology that allows legacy content and retro games to be effortlessly put out in highly accurate, emulation-based ports for modern platforms – creating a true “carbon copy” of the original game. Old, well-loved and sought-after rare releases can be made available and accessible on all-new hardware using the Carbon Engine. It is a core component of Limited Run’s vision for a world that is Forever Physical. First shipped games with the Carbon Engine are Shantae and River City Girls Zero.
Limited Run will operate as an independent subsidiary with Josh Fairhurst (CEO) and Douglas Bogart (COO) continuing to lead the company under the newly formed operative group “Embracer Freemode” (Freemode). The Carbon Engine and Limited Run’s business model aligns with the focus area heritage within Freemode cherishing retro games and the opportunity to shepherd classic games into the future and preserve the legacy.
The transaction includes the wholly-owned subsidiary Limited Run Retail LLC, a retail store in Cary, North Carolina, that opened earlier this year, and Limited Run’s 40% ownership in the joint-venture Super Deluxe Games in Japan that will source more games to Limited Run on the Western market and provide a channel to sell Limited Run’s catalogue in one of the strongest markets in the world for physical games.
Purchase Price
The parties have agreed not to disclose specific terms due to commercial reasons. The terms and conditions for the acquisition are in line with previous Embracer transactions.
Embracer Group is making enormous moves here