Since late last year, THQ Nordic’s parent company, Embracer Group, has been on its biggest buying spree yet. In December 2019, for instance, the firm purchased Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios. A couple of months thereafter, it signed a deal to acquire Saber Interactive, the team behind World War Z. Now another batch of studios can be added to the pile. During its most recent shopping spree, Embracer Group acquired 13 companies in total, 11 of which are game developers.
The group’s complete list of 13 brand-new acquisitions includes all of the following: Flying Wild Hog, Silent Games, Coffee Stain North, Quantic Lab, IUGO Mobile, Purple Lamp Studios, Sandbox Strategies, Mad Head Games, 34BigThings, Nimble Giant Entertainment, Snapshot Games, Zen Studios, and A Thinking Ape Entertainment.
Not every acquisition was put forth by Embracer Group itself, though. Gamasutra notes that a few of these deals were made by the group’s subsidiaries, such as Amplifier Game Invest, Deca Games, Koch Media, Saber Interactive, and THQ Nordic.
Among the new members in the Embracer Group family, Flying Wild Hog and Zen Studios represent the most notable. Flying Wild Hog, which was acquired for a whopping $135.2 million USD, is best known for its Shadow Warrior series. Meanwhile, Zen Studio has made a name for itself with a wide variety of Pinball experiences like Zen Pinball. (Interestingly, Flying Wild Hog recently struck a deal with publisher Focus Home Interactive to develop an “ambitious” new project, though it’s unknown how this acquisition might impact that arrangement.)
Back in August, Embracer Group purchased another sizable batch of development teams. Eight in total were acquired at the time, including 4A Games (Metro) and New World Interactive (Insurgency: Sandstorm).
[Source: Embracer Group via Gamasutra]
