Today, Embracer Group started a buying spree that included Limited Run Games, Tripwire Interactive, and the IP rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. There are a total of five acquisitions today, plus a sixth undisclosed agreement for a business involved in PC and console gaming.
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings rights signify Embracer currently owns authority of the Tolkien fantasy properties’ rights to films, video games, board games, merchandise, stage shows, and even theme parks. Included in this is Amazon’s very costly adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, which will premiere on Prime Video on September 2. Even “further movies based on iconic figures such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn and other characters from the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien” should be considered, according to Embracer.
Huge publishing conglomerate Embracer recently bought popular game franchises like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Thief and already runs more than 100 companies, including Gearbox, the creator of Borderlands, Saber Interactive, and THQ Nordic. Recently, Saudi Arabia invested $1 billion in Embracer, or around 8% of the company’s shares.
Because Limited Run is well recognized for collector’s editions and frequently enables smaller creators to be able to generate physical versions of their games, Embracer’s inclusion of Limited Run Games opens the door to additional physical games across its studios and titles. Rising Storm, Maneater, and Killing Floor are all titles by Tripwire. The enormous publishing conglomerate also disclosed today the acquisition of Singtrix, a home karaoke system, and Tuxedo Labs, the company behind Teardown.
Embracer, which also owns the comic book and entertainment company Dark Horse, has been discreetly expanding its enormous publishing division. In a statement, Lars Wingefors, co-founder and CEO of Embracer, said, “I am thrilled to welcome an extraordinary set of entrepreneur-led firms to the Embracer family and to grow our portfolio with some genuinely great IPs and franchises, including The Lord of the Rings.” It is exciting that our firm has established itself as a natural and preferred buyer of innovative, expanding, and successful gaming and entertainment businesses.
The upfront expenses for the five purchases reported today total roughly $577 million, and there’s even a sixth covert acquisition that Embracer isn’t yet announcing. According to a financial document, “Embracer has gone into agreement to purchase another firm inside PC/console gaming that, for commercial reasons, is not revealed today.” The acquisition’s purchase price is likely to rank third or fourth among all deals, according to the statement.
Following its agreement to purchase Square Enix’s three main Western game studios, Embracer went on a purchasing binge, which coincided with other significant gaming industry purchases. Bungie, the creator of Destiny, was purchased by Sony for $3.6 billion, while Take-Two paid Zynga, the company behind FarmVille, $12.7 billion. Additionally, Microsoft is in the midst of paying $68.7 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard.