Buying Tomb Raider makes Embracer one to watch. Well, keep watching | Opinion

gamesindustry.biz:

James Batchelor

Editor-in-Chief

Tuesday 10th May 2022

Embracer

In wake of the shock news that Square Enix was selling Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal for $300 million, I saw an interesting infographic on an industry Facebook group.

The image, included below, laid out studio logos in a pie chart designed to compare how many subsidiaries are owned by Microsoft, Sony, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Tencent and Embracer Group.

(Slight tangent: The original infographic that sparked this train of thought was from a Seeking Alpha article from February about Ubisoft's struggles and how allowing itself to be acquired might be a way to reverse its misfortunes. Funnily enough, last week we heard more rumours around this.)

Click to enlarge

It's by no means a scientific graph; there are a couple of notable absences, like the lack of Bungie in Sony's segment. But it's still an interesting glance at the studio landscape among these companies -- and regular GamesIndustry.biz readers with an interest in M&A news will be in no way surprised to know Embracer took up almost a third of the graph (that's not just bigger logos, either. It definitely has more than any other slice. I counted)

That, in itself, is not news. Embracer has been acquiring scores of companies for years. Its ambitions have perhaps been apparent since 2011, when the company (then Nordic Games) purchased JoWooD Entertainment and its subsidiaries. Two years later, it bought various assets and IP from bankrupt publisher THQ and later the brand itself, setting it on the path to become THQ Nordic and then Embracer.

This M&A strategy has escalated into a full blown acquisition spree in the last few years. Back in November, CEO Lars Wingefors said Embacer