Embracer Group today embarked on a wave of acquisitions that includes Limited Run Games, Tripwire Interactive and the intellectual property rights of the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. There are five acquisitions in total today, along with an undisclosed sixth deal for a PC and console gaming company.
The the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit The rights mean that Embracer now controls the movies, video games, board games, merchandising, stage productions, and even theme park rights for Tolkien’s fantasy franchises. This includes the very large and Dear take charge the Lord of the Rings It’s okay debut on Prime Video September 2nd. kisser notes that it might even explore “additional films based on such iconic characters as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn and other characters from JRR Tolkien’s literary works”.
Embracer is a huge publishing group that recently acquired big names like grave robber, Deus Exand Thiefand already operates more than 100 studios including Borderlands developer Gearbox, Saber Interactive and THQ Nordic. Saudi Arabia recently purchased a $1 billion stake in Embracerapproximately 8% of the shares of the company.
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Embrace added limited edition games opens the door to more physical games in its studios and games, as Limited Run is well known for collector’s editions and often allows smaller developers to create physical copies of their games. Tripwire is famous for slaughter area, man eaterand Rising storm. The huge publishing group also today announced the acquisition of a home karaoke system singer and Tear down developer Tuxedo Labs.
Embracer has quietly built its giant publishing group, and it also owns the Dark Horse comics and entertainment brand. “I’m excited to welcome an incredible group of entrepreneur-led companies to the Embracer family and expand our portfolio with some truly remarkable IPs and franchises, including The Lord of the Rings,” said co- Embracer founder and CEO, Lars Wingefors in a statement. “It’s encouraging that our group has become a natural and preferred buyer of creative, growing and profitable games and entertainment businesses.”
The five acquisitions announced today represent approximately $577 million in total upfront costs, and there’s even a sixth secret purchase that Embracer has yet to disclose. “Embracer has entered into an agreement to acquire another PC/console gaming company which, for commercial reasons, is not disclosed today,” says a financial deposit. “The purchase price for this undisclosed acquisition is in the range of the third or fourth largest of transactions.”
Embracer’s buying spree comes months after it agreed to acquire the three major Western game studios from Square Enix, and amid huge acquisitions in the gaming industry. Sony acquired Fate developer Bungie for $3.6 billion and Take-Two spent $12.7 billion on FarmCity manufacturer Zynga. Microsoft is also in the process of Giant acquisition of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion.