Opinion: Embracer Group Is A Grim Warning About Consolidation In Gaming

As Embracer Group crumbles before our eyes, it offers a stark warning to what consolidation in the gaming industry could lead to.

[Sonyslave3]

Dude just buy a xbox or pc and call it a day .

[DaCajun]

All the psycho fanboys arguing about MS and Sony while Tencent is gobbling up everything in its path. They already control social media in China for there government overlords. When will they start to try to force their world views, beliefs, and politics into all the game companies they have been buying out or major stock holders in, looking at you Epic Games.

[anast]

I like your screen name. The food, music, and culture is amazing from what little I have experienced.

[Profchaos]

Embracer group is a multiplat publisher

[Crows90]

Fanboys dont see past themselves. Its a big problem. Sony fans dont want playstation buying up random ass third party. Xbox fans who have forever claimed there was no problem are perfectly happy about Ms buying up random 3rd party devs...while unintentionally agreeing with all the issues xbox has had for years. Issues that they were dismissing for a very very long time.

So yeah. They cant see past themselves. They dont care if most of these 3rd party devs, like arkane, end up closing because of gamepass.

[CrashMania]

Way to completely miss the point.

[Hypertension140]

@Sonyslave3

Yes that's exactly what Microsoft wants, they what to own enough studios until it becomes difficult to own a PlayStation as a primary console.
Anyone thinking about buying a console the first thought must be Xbox and everything else is second.
They what to change everyone's way of thinking.

I got ALL of that from reading your single sentence, was I on point?

[ApocalypseShadow]

Not a bad article but there were things there that were completely unnecessary like the PlayStation hack, PS3 being expensive to buy or the always online and Kinect of Xbox. These things have nothing to do with industry consolidation.

With Sony, you could have went with the purchase of Evolution Studios and their shutdown after not delivering with Drive Club. Article writer did mention Lion Head closing their doors but could have mentioned the huge publisher acquisitions of Zenimax Bethesda and Activision purchases. It was kind of spoken about to sure up game pass but could have expanded more on these and their effect on the industry and their competitors.

Problem with Embracer is that they haven't made any impact with their purchases. They bought Studios and IP but have done really nothing to show for it. Maybe it was to get profit down the line eventually on their acquisitions by being the owner in the background. But their spending just seemed wasteful.

We'll see what they'll do over time and if it was worth the acquisitions.

[bababooiy]

People seem to rarely consider the direction these studios were going in before these purchases. Most recent Bethesda titles were massive flops. How long do you think they couldve kept operating on such losses without considering massive layoffs? When it comes to Embracer, a number of the studios they purchased were basically dead in the water. Like Volitioon behind Saints Row who were on life support for almost a decade. With their last big budget title being Agents of Mayhem which did like 10k copies.

Often times for many of these studios getting bought out is another chance at rebuilding.

[neutralgamer1992]

With the cost of game development rising so much it is only a matter of time before the small to medium size publishers are required by larger companies. one huge failure, code, sync, the whole ship. Microsoft threw the biggest punch rent it wired so much talent so don’t be surprised when there is a definite reaction to those acquisitions.

I have always said this and I will always say this. I am against game platforms buying of publishers there enough independent studios they could acquire they should never go after publishers and then make their games exclusives

[FreeckyCake]

They were a warning since last year when they began shutting down several studios left and right after acquiring the rights to Deus Ex and the Legacy of Kain series.

[MrDead]

This is why I don't want MS, Goggle, Amazon or Apple anywhere near gaming. At anytime these tax dodging mega companies can just take huge chucks of any industry they decide to enter away. Until we have consumer protections that are allowed to work outside of MS money hatting we will carry on losing more and more.

The more things owned by fewer and fewer companies the worse everything always gets.

[Knightofelemia]

I am sure Tencent is swimming around and will start picking up the bits and pieces from Embracer. Any company can fall if you're a dumbass like Embracer and not fully plan things out and plan thoroughly.