Destroy All Humans
Destroy All Humans first came out in 2005.
Categories

Embracer Group acquires 12 game studios and a PR firm (updated)

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 1 min

Somebody better tell Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic and Nordic Games Publishing) to slow down, because the game publisher just decided to acquire 12 game studios.

The deals are smaller in nature, but along with Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda in September, it is yet more proof that the game industry has gone wild with deal-making.

The acquired studios include:

  • Thinking Ape Entertainment in Canada (82 people)
  • Nimble Giant Entertainment in Argentina (75 people)
  • Mad Head Games in Serbia (130 people)
  • Snapshot Games in Bulgaria (65 people)
  • 34BigThings in Italy (28 employees)
  • Zen Studios in Hungary (65 people)
  • IUGO Mobile Entertainment in Canada (86 people)
  • Purple Lamp Studios in Austria (38 people)
  • Quantic Lab in Romania (390 people)
  • Coffee Stain North (22 employees)
  • Flying Wild Hog in Poland (260 people)
  • Silent Games in England (30 people)

It also bought Sandbox Strategies, a PR and influencer relations agency in New York. The 11 studios and PR agency add at least 1,273 new employees to Embracer Group’s growing ranks, as that pushes the company over 5,000 workers.

The company reported 4,445 employees for the third quarter, including 3,593 internal and external game developers. The total is up 17% from a year ago.

The Karlstad, Sweden-based company said it has 135 game projects in the works right now, up from 118 in May. Market researcher Newzoo expects game industry revenues to hit $174.9 billion in 2020, thanks in part to gamers entertaining themselves relentlessly during the pandemic. Embracer raised $661 million in cash via a stock sale on October 8.

Embracer Group also reported its earnings today and said its sales increased 89% for the third quarter ended September 30 to $276.4 million, while profits before taxes and other items was $112.3 million.

Expect to see more deals soon. CEO Lars Wingefors said the company has been actively talking to more than 100 entrepreneurs who “want to be part of the Embracer family.”

Updated: 11:17 p.m. Pacific on 11/17/20 with one acquisition we missed.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.