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Embracer Group has announced its intention to split the company into three separate entities going forward in what seems to be a drastic attempt to streamline its operations and rebuild its reputation after months of downsizing and layoffs.
Announced via the official website (thanks, VGC), the company confirmed that each entity will be listed on Nasdasq Stockholm and will be called ‘Asmodee’, ‘Coffee Stain & Friends’, and ‘Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends’.
As for what each company will be doing, Embracer laid this out as follows:
Asmodee, a global leading tabletop games publisher and distributor with an extensive studio network and IP catalogue.
“Coffee Stain & Friends”, a diverse gaming entity with a dual focus on indie and A/AA premium and free-to-play games for PC/console and mobile, with a high degree of recurring revenues.
“Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends”, a creative powerhouse in AAA game development and publishing for PC and console, as well as the stewards of The Lord of the Rings and Tomb Raider intellectual properties, among many others.
So basically, big ‘AAA’ games will come from ‘Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends’, while smaller titles of the indie and ‘AA’ variety will come from ‘Coffee Stain & Friends’. We won’t lie, we’re not super thrilled with the names here; it’ll be weird to see franchises like Tomb Raider and Dead Island fall under a company called ‘Middle-earth Enterprises’, but there we go. Times have certainly changed since Tolkien’s day.
Meanwhile, Embracer has confirmed that it has entered into a new financing deal through Asmodee Group amounting to a total of €900 million. This will allow it to ‘repay existing debt and reduce leverage in the remaining Embracer Group’.
As for its official reasoning behind the move, Embracer states that will be able to utilise ‘clearer operational strategies and financial profiles’ to allow for individual financial goals across all three companies, as well as ensuring the ‘best possible greenlighting models, portfolios and go-to-market strategies for indie games as well as AAA games’.
What seems obvious to us, however, is that the Embracer name has been dragged through the mud over the last year or so, so if we’re honest, we’re not particularly surprised to see it ditched for something fresh.