Embracer Group confirmed it is selling Saber Interactive to Beacon Interactive on Thursday morning, following rumors of a sale last month. Saber Interactive is a massive company that not only develops games like Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game but also owns several studios.
So, what exactly did Embracer offload?
The press release announcing the sale can be a bit tough to parse with all the financial information and corporate terminology found within. We’ve put together a simplified explanation here if you’re looking for a cheat sheet. In terms of studios, Beacon Interactive acquired the following ones in its $247 million deal with Embracer Group.
- All Saber branded studios, including Saber Interactive, Saber Armenia, Saber Belarus, Saber Porto, Saber Russia, Saber Spain, Saber Sweden
- DIGIC Pictures, a 3D animation studio that works on cinematics for video games
- Fractured Byte, the studio behind the Switch ports of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 and Borderlands Legendary Edition
- Mad Head Games, the developer behind 2023’s Scars Above
- New World Interactive, steward of the Insurgency franchise
- Nimble Giant Entertainment, the developer of Star Trek: Infinite
- Sandbox Strategies, a video game industry PR firm
- Slipgate Ironworks, the studio behind Graven and Wrath: Aeon of Ruin
- 3D Realms, a storied publisher of first-person shooter games
With this deal, Beacon Interactive is acquiring 2,950 developers working on 38 different projects. This might not be the end of the offloading, though. Embracer Group says that it’s also giving Beacon Interactive the option to buy Metro series developer 4A Studios and pinball game maker Zen Studios, although those deals are not locked in at this time.
If you’re aware of the breadth of what Saber Interactive owns, you’ll recognize that’s not every studio owned by the company. Embracer says it will continue ownership of the following studios, redistributing them to its other subsidiaries.
- 34BigThings, developers of Redout
- Apsyr, which just released the Star Wars: Battlefront Classic Collection
- Beamdog, the studio behind Mythforce
- Demiurge, a mobile game developer and support studio for titles like 2XKO.
- Shiver, makers of the maligned Mortal Kombat 1 Nintendo Switch port
- Snapshot Games, developers of Phoenix Point
- Tripwire Interactive, which is currently developing Killing Floor 3
- Tuxedo Labs, the studio behind Teardown
- 4A Games and Zen Studios (pending sale)
Although it’s selling off parts of what Saber Interactive owned, Embracer Group says it will still retain the rights to certain projects that were in the works at these studios. Most notably, Embracer operating group Plaion has the licensing and publishing rights to the Metro franchise, which is getting a new VR game this year. Embracer Group will still have control of the following.
- Killing Floor 3
- Teardown
- The upcoming games and back catalogs of Aspyr, Tripwire, and Zen Studios
- 4A Games’ next AAA title
- An unannounced concept phase AAA game
- A previously announced licensed AAA game
- A multiplayer shooter based on a franchise Embracer owns
- An Asmodee IP-based AA game
- 34BigThings next game
- Two “joint projects” with Saber Interactive