Embracer to sell Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake developer Saber

eurogamer.net:

Embracer Group is set to sell Saber Interactive in a deal worth up to $500m, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Saber will continue to work on its remake of Star Wars: The Knights of the Old Republic after development was removed from Aspyr in 2022.

This deal is just the latest from Embracer as part of its restructuring programme that's already seen over a thousand staff laid off and studios closed.

Saber will become a privately owned company of around 3500, a source told Bloomberg. The company was originally bought by Embracer in 2020 for $525m — meaning it's potentially made a loss overall.

The $500m figure is said to include an option for Saber to bring along multiple Embracer subsidiaries.

Saber is best known for its Snowrunner and World War Z games. It's next game will be Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game launching on 5th March, according to the company website, with Space Marine 2, Jurassic Park: Survival, Heading Out and John Carpenter's Toxic Commando all set for release in 2024.

According to its latest financial report earlier this month, Embracer has now laid off eight percent of its workforce as its restructuring programme reaches «mature stages». In total, 1387 Embracer employees have lost their jobs in the last two quarters.

In that financial report, the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake remained on Embracer's list of forthcoming games, despite troubled development. In November 2023 a report stated the game was not being worked on at Saber, though this was contradicted a couple of days later.

"'Is it alive?' and 'Will it ever actually come out?' are two very different questions," journalist Jason Schreier said at the time. «A third is 'If it does ever come out, what will it actually look like?'»