You’ll be forgiven for thinking that Embracer Group owns half of the games industry by the time you’re done reading this article. The Swedish holding company went on yet another spending spree, announcing early this morning that it has acquired The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit IPs by purchasing Middle-earth Enterprises along with a number of video game companies including Limited Run Games and TripWire Interactive.
New list of companies acquired by Embracer Group
With companies like Gearbox Entertainment, THQ Nordic, several former Square Enix studios, and Saber Interactive under its belt among others, Embracer Group set out to purchase the following:
- Bitwave Games (retro games)
- Giotek (accessories brand)
- Limited Run Games (physical game publisher – collector’s editions)
- Middle-earth Enterprises (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit)
- Singtrix (music and audio gaming products)
- Tatsujin (Japanese studio)
- Tuxedo Labs (Teardown)
- TripWire Interactive (Maneater, Killing Floor)
Embracer has established a new division called Embracer Freemode within which these companies will operate. Embracer Freemode focuses on six market segments: retro / classic / heritage gaming and entertainment, game development and production, devices, gear, and collectables, community and ecommerce, new idea and technology incubation, and production services.
Middle-earth Enterprises is one of Embracer Group’s most significant acquisitions as it grants the company ownership of a massive IP catalog with worldwide rights to motion pictures, video games, board games, merchandising, theme parks, and stage productions. This includes Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings set to premiere this September, and Warner Bros.’ The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
“Other opportunities include exploring additional movies based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn, and other characters from the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien, and continue to provide new opportunities for fans to explore this fictive world through merchandising and other experiences,” Embracer wrote.
In other news, Nintendo was once working on a multiplatform adaptive controller, and Sony has been accused of blocking Cult of the Lamb from releasing on Game Pass.
