Monday, September 11th 2023
Embracer Group Reportedly Weighing Up Sale of Gearbox Entertainment
Embracer Group is reportedly going through a significant restructuring phase—a breaking/exclusive Reuters article indicates that company leadership is "considering options for its U.S. game developer Gearbox Entertainment." Past investments have resulted in the Stockholm-headquartered firm accumulating a vast portfolio of intellectual properties as well as ownership of multiple AAA-focused game development studios, but trying financial circumstances have caused some turmoil. Veteran studio, Volition Games, ceased doing business as announced around late August. The Saints Row and Red Faction franchise developer stated: "this past June, Embracer Group announced a restructuring program to strengthen Embracer and maintain its position as a leader in the video game industry. As part of that program, they evaluated strategic and operational goals and made the difficult decision to close Volition effective immediately."
Reuters believes, via three anonymous sources, that Embracer is consulting with Goldman Sachs and Aream & Co. regarding the possible sale of Gearbox—all involved organizations have declined to make a comment to media outlets. Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors has previously described 2023 being a "challenging year." Gearbox was acquired back in February 2021 in "a deal that valued the business at up to $1.4 billion at the time." Two of the insiders claim that "marketing materials are already available for potential buyers, which consist mainly of international gaming groups." Eurogamer reports that some interested parties have already come forward.
Bloomberg's Jason Schreier has picked up on an internal email sent to Gearbox employees. The studio's chief communications officer, Dan Hewitt wrote: "The base case is that Gearbox remains a part of Embracer. However, there are many options under consideration, including Gearbox's transfer, taking Gearbox independent, and others. Ultimately, we'll move ahead with whichever path is best for both Gearbox and Embracer...Nothing has been decided yet, but there will be a lot of speculation in the coming weeks."
Sources:
Reuters, Eurogamer, Bloomberg
Reuters believes, via three anonymous sources, that Embracer is consulting with Goldman Sachs and Aream & Co. regarding the possible sale of Gearbox—all involved organizations have declined to make a comment to media outlets. Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors has previously described 2023 being a "challenging year." Gearbox was acquired back in February 2021 in "a deal that valued the business at up to $1.4 billion at the time." Two of the insiders claim that "marketing materials are already available for potential buyers, which consist mainly of international gaming groups." Eurogamer reports that some interested parties have already come forward.
13 Comments on Embracer Group Reportedly Weighing Up Sale of Gearbox Entertainment
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands was kinda meh cause of the lackulster end game/no proper dlcs either but supposedly they are working on BL 4 so thats something I'm defo looking forward to. 'BL 3 sold 15 million copies in 2 years while BL 2 sold 27 since its launch so thats not too bad imo'
Embracer received a far smaller investment and now doesn't have enough cash to fund all of their lofty plans so they are forced to consider selling off assets to generate cash to allocate to higher priority projects.
This is not the first time this has happened nor will it be the last.
Tbh if BL 2 did not have the better than average story especially Handsome Jack's character then there would be a lot less complaining considering that vanilla BL 1 had almost no story yet it was fairly successfull at the time. 'the dlcs did help with the story part tho, General Knoxx was great'
I don't find BL 3's story that bad but not great either, it gets the job done for a game like this imo.
Even tho I have every char in BL 3 at max level with an end game capable build so almost nothing left to do I can still fire up the game and have a blast playing it for a while and thats what matters to me the most.
By no means saying that BL 2 is a bad game, I've put my fair share of hours into it but that game never managed to keep me around for this long. 'I've actually played BL 1 for longer than BL 2'
Ultimately imo it comes down to what you want from the serie/how you look at it and why you play it.
If its just another lets play it once for the story and ditch game then yea BL 2 is your best bet but for general playing/end game stuff then the current BL 3 is a better experience imo. 'also more solo friendly if you put at least a bit of effort into your build/learning the game's systems'