Newly-minted Saber Interactive boss says Embracer CEO 'gets a bad rap' for massive layoffs, studio closures, and game cancellations
There is probably no company more emblematic of the workplace chaos that's gripped the videogame industry than Embracer. After rapidly expanding into a gaming behemoth, the studio went off a cliff in 2023 after the collapse of a planned $2 billion investment deal with Saudi Arabia's Savvy Games Group. But Matthew Karch, CEO of the newly spun-off Saber Interactive, believes Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors «gets a bad rap» for all the layoffs and studio closures that followed, saying in an interview with GamesIndustry that in reality, «nobody has been guided by more of a sense of fairness and reasonableness.»
Embracer acquired Saber Interactive in 2020, making Karch—formerly the CEO of Saber—a member of its board. In 2023, Karch took over as Embracer's chief operating officer, and then in 2024 founded a company called Beacon Interactive that acquired most of Saber Interactive from Embracer in March.
«The process that we've had to go through to terminate studios has absolutely been… it's killed us,» Karch said. «I say 'us' even though I'm no longer part of the company because I feel like… I mean, I still have shares, I still have close relationships and good friends, and obviously the best wishes that they succeed over there. But I would say Embracer tried harder than anybody to save as many jobs as it could.»
Karch said the failure of the Savvy Games Group deal meant Embracer was forced to make «significant changes,» but also pointed a finger at other commonly-cited factors for layoffs and closures, including rising interest rates that made it more difficult to raise money and «a lack of patience for companies that had investments that were long term into video games.» The growth of Embracer's debt and decline in its share price, which he blamed in part on people «trying to take advantage of other people's misery» by short-selling the stock, also made it difficult to raise capital.
Interestingly, Karch said Embracer didn't really need the Savvy Games Group deal, but
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