Who Is Embracer Group? Everything You Need To Know About The Massive Game Company

gamespot.com:

You've probably heard of some of the biggest third-party game publishers such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, and Capcom, but there is another company that has been expanding rapidly through a series of acquisitions: Embracer Group, which just bought a number of studios and IP from Square Enix (including Tomb Raider maker Crystal Dynamics and Deus Ex's Eidos Montreal). The video game company, by market value, is now the largest in all of Europe. But just what is Embracer Group, what studios and franchises does it own, and how did it get to be such a massive company with so little name recognition?

Let's get this out of the way first: The reason you may not recognize the Embracer Group name is that it operates several other publishers and developers with names you do recognize. At this time, Embracer Group is the parent company of major publishers like Deep Silver, THQ Nordic, and Gearbox, to name a few, as well over 100 game studios. The company was previously known as THQ Nordic but adopted its current name to avoid confusion following its many acquisitions.

Embracer Group, when it was known as Nordic Games, was avery small operation that focused primarily on finding holes in the market it could capitalize on, such as a lack of karaoke games on Nintendo's systems in the late 2000s. After acquiring smaller properties and slowly growing while keeping costs low, it entered something of a «phase 2.»

Embracer Group has grown enormously over the last several years, often by purchasing studios and franchise rights from other companies that are either letting them stay dormant or are liquidating because of bankruptcy. This is how the company came to own much of the original THQ's catalog, including the Metro and Darksiders series.