Embracer Group: What is the Company That Now Owns Tomb Raider?

ign.com:

With over 120 internal studios, 230 games in development, and a massive stable of 850 IPs, Embracer Group has quietly become one of the biggest names in video games. The company, which calls itself “a parent company of businesses led by entrepreneurs in PC, console, mobile and board games, and other related media,” most recently purchased a handful of studios and IPs from Square Enix, including Crystal Dynamics/Tomb Raider, and now the gaming and movie rights to Lord of the Rings.

As Embracer Group continues to expand, many gamers have wondered, What exactly is Embracer Group, and what’s it doing with all these game franchises?

To answer that question, we’ve distilled Embracer Group’s thirty-year history into a digestible chronology, explaining how the company came to be and cataloging its growing list of notable development studios and game franchises. (Monetary amounts are listed in USD$ via exchange rate based on the days those deals were announced.)

Embracer Group is a Swedish holding company — that is a company that doesn’t produce goods or services itself, rather it owns other companies that do. In the case of Embracer, it owns 11 such companies (i.e., operating groups): THQ Nordic, Plaion, Coffee Stain, Amplifier Game Invest, Saber Interactive, DECA Games, Gearbox Entertainment, Easybrain, Asmodee, Dark Horse, and the recently founded Embracer Freemode. All 11 companies operate a varying number of businesses and/or studios, all of which fall beneath the Embracer Group umbrella.

To extend the oft-used familial metaphor, Embracer is the parent company of Plaion (f.k.a. Koch Media) and Saber Interactive, and therefore could be considered the grandparent company of developers like Volition (Saints Row) and 4A games