Swedish game publisher Embracer Group recently announced that its board of directors plans to split the group into three separate public companies, namely Asmodee Group, Coffee Stain & Friends and Middle-Earth Enterprises & Friends. Of these, the latter two companies will adopt new names at a later date.
According to Embresser, the group intends to divide the 9,003 IPs it fully owns or controls among three companies, all of which will be able to focus on their "core strategy" and develop in their own way in the future. Asmodee will focus on board games, Coffee Stain will develop and publish indie and 2A games for PC, console and mobile platforms, and Middle-Earth Enterprises & Friends will make full use of the group's blockbuster IPs such as "The Lord of the Rings" and "Tomb Raider" to produce triple-A masterpieces on PC and console.
Embreser said the three companies could work together around their respective IP or businesses, according to Embrese. Embreser CEO Lars Wingefors will remain the owner of all three companies and revealed he "intends to form a new long-term ownership structure". "As the CEO and principal owner of the Group, I have always felt that it is my responsibility to help successful entrepreneurs, game makers and business leaders achieve greater success. In an open letter talking about the company's transformation, Wigeffs wrote, "That's not going to change. ”
Not long ago, Embreser had just completed a nine-month restructuring, closing three studios (Volition Games, Free Radical Design, and Campfire Cabal), selling Saber Interactive and Gearbox, and laying off more than 1,400 employees.
Asmodee Group
Asmodee's organizational structure remains largely unchanged, with 23 in-house board game R&D studios. At Asmodee, Thomas Koegler, the current deputy chief operating officer, will be promoted to CEO in the coming months, while Marc Nunes, the company's founder and current chief operating officer, and Stéphane Carville, the current chief executive officer, will join the board of directors.
As a board game publisher, Asmodee owns over 300 of its own IPs, including Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Azul, Catan and Exploding Kittens. In addition, the company also owns a number of games and IPs published by agents.
Embreser also announced that the group has entered into a financing agreement of 900 million euros (about SEK 10.5 billion) through Asmodee, which will receive loans from JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas, Nordic Bank, Société Générale and Swedbank for up to 18 months, on terms similar to Embrese's existing loan of 8 billion SEK (nearly 690 million euros). According to Embrese, the deal is "an important part of the debt refinancing" following the completion of the group's restructuring plan.
Coffee Stain & Friends
Coffee Stain's business will consist of two distinct segments, namely pay-to-play games and F2P games.
Among them, the paid games division is made up of studios such as Coffee Stain, THQ Nordic, Amplifier Game Invest, Ghost Ship, Tariser, Tuxedo Labs, and others, with more than 200 IPs, including Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Sim, Happiness Factory, Wreckfest, and Valhalla.
The F2P games division includes Easybrian, Deca, CrazyLabs, and Cryptic, and these teams develop or operate games such as Sudoku.com, Blockudoku, Jigsaw Puzzle, Star Trek Online, Neverwinter Online, and a host of hyper-casual mobile games.
Anton Westbergh, CEO of Coffee Stain, continues to take the helm of the entire company and will report to him from the CEOs of the subsidiaries.
Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends
Middle-Earth is made up of studios such as Crystal Dynamics, Dambuster Studios, Eidos Montreal, Flaying Wild Hog, Tripwire, Vertigo Games, Warhorse Studios and 4A Games, and companies such as Plaion, the publisher of the Metro series owned by Embresser, Dark Horse Comics, and Freemode, will also be part of this new entity.
In addition to "The Lord of the Rings" and "Tomb Raider", Middle-Earth's other IPs include "Dead Island", "Killing Space", "Kingdom Comedy: Deliverance" and "Metro", among others.
Phil Rogers, Chief Strategy Officer of the Embreser Group and CEO of Crystal Dynamics/Eidos Montreal Studio, has been appointed head of Middle-Earth and will report to him from the CEOs of the various subsidiaries.
Executive Team
Phil Rogers, Anton Westberge and Stéphane Carville also joined the executive management of the Embreser Group. Currently, Embrese's executive team consists of:
- Russ Wegefs, Group CEO
- Johan Ekström，集团CFO兼副CEO
- Careen Yapp,首席战略合作官
- Ian Gulam,首席人力资源、法务和治理官
- Anton Westbergh，Coffee Stain首席执行官
- Phil Rogers，集团首席战略官
- Stéphane Carville, Chief Executive Officer, Asmodee
In the letter, Wegefs looks back at Embrese's journey to date. "It's not an easy road, but I'm very proud of what thousands of talented employees have accomplished. They create exceptional content that provides an enjoyable experience to millions of players around the world. "Today, Embreser owns some of the best companies and IPs in the entire gaming and entertainment industry, and it's my job to create the best conditions for their continued success." ”
"I believe the time is ripe to split Embreser into three publicly traded companies. Each company has sufficient scale, a coherent strategy, a business model that excels in it, and is led by a visionary team...... We want to create an environment for these companies to amplify existing successes, and it will be easier for three companies with different strengths to achieve this in a given market segment. ”