Tomb Raider’s new owners just got $1bn dollars from Saudi Arabia

pcgamesn.com:

Embracer Group, the new owner of Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, has received a substantial cash injection courtesy of a $1bn investment from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF).

If you aren’t already aware of Embracer, it’s the Swedish holding company and ultimate owner of a huge range of more-familiar game developers, including Saber, the team behind the Halo Anniversary remaster and the recent Evil Dead game; Gearbox, maker of Borderlands; and Coffee Stain Studios, the developer of, uh, Goat Simulator. That’s right. The Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia now owns a percentage of Goat Simulator. There’s a sentence I didn’t expect to write today.

Embracer issued 100 million shares to a subdivision of the Fund named the Savvy Gaming Group, which aims to diversify Saudi’s investment portfolio through gaming and other entertainment companies. This follows Embracer’s purchase, in May, of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal, the makers of Tomb Raider and Deus Ex. They now sit alongside Saints Row creator Volition and Metro series developer 4A in Embracer’s impressive catalogue of studios.

Following its investment, the Investment Fund’s Savvy Gaming Group now owns a significant 8.1% of all Embracer’s operations, making it the organisation’s second-largest owner. This follows the 5.01% stake the Fund purchased in May in Nintendo, marking its third investment into the Japanese gaming god.

Prior to that, in February, the PIF spent a collective $1bn on 5% stakes in both Resident Evil and Street Fighter developer Capcom and also Nexon, the company overseeing publication of games like Final Fantasy XIV in South Korea.

And going back even further, in December 2020, the Fund bought $3bn worth of stock