by
William D’Angelo
, posted on 18 August 2022 / 3,277 Views
Embracer Group in a series of press releases has announced it has acquired multiple companies. This includes Limited Run Games, Tripwire Interactive, Singtrix, Tuxedo Labs, Tatsujin, and Bitwave Games.
Along with the acquisitions is the formation of Embracer Group’s 11th operating group called Embracer Freemode, which will focus on retro, classic, and heritage gaming category. It will also invest in iconic gaming and entertainment properties. Freemode is led by CEO Lee Guinchard.
“With our announcement of Freemode, we demonstrate our continued commitment to diversified growth into new areas, ultimately preserving yesterday`s classics in addition to expanding further tomorrow’s gaming and entertainment experiences,” said Embracer AB Group CEO Lars Wingefors.
Freemode CEO Lee Guinchard added, “Creators by their nature are at the forefront of industry-leading innovation and disruption. Founders are empowered to realize their true creative vision. Ultimately, our goal is to provide our entrepreneur-led companies with the essential resources to deliver the most exciting entertainment experiences for fans around the world.”
Read all the details about the acquisitions below:
Limited Run Games
Embracer Group through its wholly owned subsidiary Freemode has entered into an agreement to acquire Limited Run Games from its founders Josh Fairhurst and Douglas Bogart. Limited Run is a global leading collector-focused publisher of physical video games with a strong brand, established direct-to-consumer channels, and owns the development technology Carbon Engine that ports retro games to modern platforms.
“As an avid collector, I’ve admired Limited Run’s collectors’ editions. They’ve built a strong brand that resonates with players. We see opportunities for Limited Run to further grow their business with the Carbon Engine by bringing back classic games, and extend their footprint geographically through synergies with other companies within Embracer Group”, says Lars Wingefors, CEO of Embracer Group.
Limited Run is the global leading brand within its nische/business, a premium publisher of physical games founded in 2015 by
Limited Run is well-known for its collector’s editions and operates a direct-to-consumer model with a big loyal audience of collectors. The company evolved its business model with vinyl records and other merchandise, and distributed titles helping other publishers bring physical versions of their games to market through the Limited Run site and retailers.
Tripwire Interactive
Embracer Group through its wholly owned subsidiary Saber Interactive, has entered into an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares of award-winning US developer and publisher Tripwire Interactive from its four current owners. Tripwire Interactive is well-known for the Killing Floor and Rising Storm series and their recent best-seller Maneater, as well as their publishing division Tripwire Presents.
“Tripwire is a unique studio. Since their founding in 2005, they have grown, through tremendous leadership and vision, into one of the last great independent developers. I have looked up to Tripwire as an example of how to design and execute on games. Saber has Tripwire to thank for many of our own successes and I am proud to welcome them into our family,” said Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive.
Founded in 2005 in
Co-founder and CEO
The acquisition adds an extremely experienced development group with its collection of four strong franchises: Maneater, Killing Floor, Rising Storm, and
Within the
Tuxedo Labs
Embracer Group AB (“Embracer”), through its wholly owned subsidiary Saber Interactive[1], has acquired 100 percent of the shares of Swedish developer Tuxedo Labs. Tuxedo Labs is best known for creating the hit voxel-based destruction PC game Teardown. Embracer adds Dennis Gustafsson, Tuxedo Labs’ founder and CTO, who is a highly technical visionary with a specialty in physics, and his team of 5.
“Tuxedo Labs has created revolutionary technology that opens up vast possibilities for emergent gameplay and user-created content. Their hit title Teardown has the potential to become the standard-bearing platform for physics simulation in games. Many of us at Saber and our subsidiary 3D Realms have worked with Dennis since the mid-2000’s. We are super excited to welcome Dennis, their CEO Marcus Dawson, and the rest of the Tuxedo Labs team into the Embracer family,” said Matthew Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive.
“This is a perfect fit for us because of our shared interests in physics-driven game design and Saber’s resources to help us achieve our long-term vision. We will now be able to rapidly expand and accelerate our plans for Teardown, including bringing it to new audiences, while simultaneously focusing on evolving voxel-based technology for our next generation of games,” said Dennis Gustafsson, founder of Tuxedo Labs.
Founded in 2019 in Malmo,
Tatsujin
We are also proud to officially announce that we recently acquired Tatsujin which is Embracer’s first studio located in
Bitwave Games
Freemode also acquired Bitwave Games, a Swedish studio with passion for retro games. With the backing of Freemode, Bitwave can expand the internal development team and build a publishing team. Bitwave will bring the highly regarded shoot ’em up games from Toaplan to PC and publish the NES/Famicom classic platformer Gimmick! on console and modern consoles in the west.
Singtrix
Embracer Group through its wholly owned subsidiary Freemode, has entered into an agreement to acquire Singtrix LLC from its founders.
Singtrix, based in the Los Angeles area, is an award-winning creator of industry leading vocal processing effects technology for karaoke, gaming, and entertainment. Through the transaction, Freemode gains a world class group of entrepreneurs and creators, adding to its innovation group in the US. The Singtrix team has a 25-year history of developing iconic music games and is noted as the first to patent the core technology behind the Guitar Hero Franchise.
“The Singtrix team is one of the most highly regarded innovators in music gaming, vocal processing, and entertainment. Their proven track record behind groundbreaking mass music franchises and inspiring singing experiences is without parallel and makes them a perfect fit for Freemode’s plan to vastly expand its entertainment offerings”, says Lee Guinchard, CEO of Freemode.
Singtrix creator and CEO John Devecka is a music gaming pioneer. In 1996, John patented and invented the first music video game, MTV Drumscape, which became a top-10 attraction in arcades. His foundational music gaming patent portfolio was ultimately acquired by Activision for its smash hit Guitar Hero, where he worked with top gaming and development studios introducing new music gaming technology. After leaving Activision, Devecka reinvented karaoke with Singtrix and its industry leading studio quality vocal effects. Together, with his co-founders Al Roque and Eric Berkowitz, the Singtrix team plan to bring the next pop culture musical experience to the world.
Through the acquisition, Freemode welcomes a highly innovative team of 5 and its extensive network that will strengthen Freemode’s game development and present new opportunities for music and audio gaming products. Management expects that Singtrix will expand its vocal technology platform into a broad range of new music games, streaming, and mobile franchises. In addition, Singtrix’s presence in Los Angeles further builds on Freemode’s footprint in the US and provides a new major hub of entertainment creator talent on the West Coast.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.