Embracer Group Is Now Splitting into Three Separate Companies 1
Image: Push Square

Embracer Group, the company best known for acquiring an obscene number of studios, publishers, and intellectual property and then laying off thousands when that didn't work out, is set to split into three separate entities. Following its massive restructuring plan, the business is dividing into a trio of companies, each with their own leadership and specialities.

Asmodee Group will take charge of tabletop games, while Embracer's video game empire is being shared out between two new entities. Their names are 'Coffee Stain & Friends' and 'Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends'. We're not making those up.

Coffee Stain & Friends will be responsible for "indie and A/AA premium and free-to-play games for PC/console and mobile". As well as Coffee Stain, this group also houses the likes of Ghost Ship, Tarsier, Tuxedo Labs, and THQ Nordic, with control of Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Simulator, Satisfactory, Wreckfest, Teardown, Valheim, and over 200 other IPs.

Meanwhile, Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends will helm AAA development and publishing. Under this umbrella are studios like Crystal Dynamics, Dambuster Studios, Eidos-Montréal, Flying Wild Hog Studios, Tripwire, Vertigo Games, Warhorse Studios, and 4A Games. IPs include Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Dead Island, Killing Floor, Kingdom Come Deliverance, Metro, and of course, The Lord of the Rings.

The rationale behind this decision is not only to make the whole enterprise more attractive to shareholders, but also to improve the effectiveness of each group. Each will operate independently from the others, and thus able to focus on their own goals and targets, rather than have everything lumped together and led by a single board. "The new structure enables the best possible greenlighting models, portfolios and go-to-market strategies for indie games as well as AAA games through two separate, more focused entities," the press release reads.

While the video game company names are clearly cursed and Embracer's trajectory over the last few years is something to be studied, this does overall seem like a positive step forward. The company as a single entity was clearly too top heavy to be sustainable; separating out like this will let each group work in a more focused way.

What do you make of this news? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source embracer.com, via twitter.com]