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Saber Interactive has reportedly found a strategy to break out of the death grip of its parent company Embracer Group AB. Bloomberg mentioned Thursday announced that “a group of private investors” would buy the studio in a deal worth about $500 million. Saber will then become a private company with about 3,500 employees.
Engadget emailed a Saber spokesperson to confirm the alleged acquisition. The studio declined to comment.
The alleged agreement would be one of Embracer’s most significant cost-cutting steps since the collapse of a $2 billion deal with a group backed by a Saudi sovereign wealth fund. The compromised deal has been criticized by some as the gaming equivalent of “sportswashing”, using popular sports takeovers and partnerships to boost the global image of embattled governments. This came after American intelligence information Conclusion That the Saudi regime killing Washington Post Journalist Jamal Khashoggi in late 2018.
Other cost-cutting moves at Embracer included laying off about 900 employees in September, and cutting another 50 or so jobs at Embracer. choir Developer Fishlabs is implementing more layoffs in Tiny Tina’s Wonderland developer Lost Boys InteractiveBeamdog, Crystal Dynamics, and Saber subsidiary New World Interactive. Embracer is also closed Saints row Volition Games studio and Campfire Cabal.
according to BloombergThe sale of Saber will not affect the studio’s role in developing an upcoming film Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (couture) New edition. This game has already changed once: Aspyr Media was acquired by one of Eastern Europe’s Saber studios in the summer of 2022.
Aspyr had reportedly already been working on the game for years before submitting a demo to Lucasfilm and Sony in June 2022; A week later, Asper fired its design director and art director. (Reports of couture A demo costing a disproportionate amount of time and money might suggest a possible reason for the fallout.) By late that summer, Saber took over development of the long-awaited—and indefinitely delayed—remake.
Embracer bought Saber for $525 million in 2020, snapping up game studios left and right. It acquired at least 27 companies during that period, some of which (Demiurge Studios and New World Interactive) were folded into Saber. Bloomberg Reports indicate that the deal to sell Saber to private investors includes an option “to bring on board several Embracer subsidiaries.”
One studio that’s too big to be included in this deal is Borderlands developer Gearbox Entertainment. but, Kotaku mentioned On Thursday, Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford told employees this week that a decision has been made about the future of the studio. He allegedly said he would be able to share more details with them next month.
Meanwhile, a cloud of uncertainty surrounds Gearbox and the other remaining Embracer studios. “I personally have been looking for roles elsewhere, not only because of layoff concerns at Embracer, but because of the pay,” an anonymous developer reportedly told Kotaku. “The vague and persistent pattern is certainly par for the course at the moment and has been so throughout most of 2023.”
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