Debt-ridden Embracer will sell them off for up to $500 million, according to report
Embracer Group are reportedly selling off Saber Interactive, the company behind theStar Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic remakeandWarhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2among many other things. Apparently, Saber are being flogged to a group of private investors for “up to” $500 million.
The report in question comes fromBloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who cites a person familiar with the negotiations. Schreier also says onXitterthat the Knights Of The Old Republic remake is still in development, despite extended radio silence from Embracer, though whether it’ll eventually release is another question.
Embracer are, as you’ve maybe read round these parts, currently in the middle ofa “restructuring” operationafter the reported collapse of a billion-dollar Savvy Games investment deal last year. CEO Lars Wingefors and the other Embracer execs have spent many months laying people off, cancelling games and closing studios in a bid to recoup massive debts accrued during an acquisition spree over the past few years.
Also according to Bloomberg’s report, the deal includes an option for Saber to bring a bunch of other Embracer subsidiaries with them, though I’m not sure whether this refers to Saber’s own subsidiaries, as Schreier suggests above, or other studios within the wider Embracer empire. Certainly, I’m sure there are a fair few who’d love to jump ship at this point. Schreier has separatelyhintedon Xitter that we’ll hear more soon about the fate of Borderlands outfit Gearbox Entertainment. It wasrumoured last September that Embracer were considering putting Gearbox up for sale.
Saber or at least Saber subsidiaries have made or helped make a lot of my personal guilty favourites. I’m old enough to remember their gravity-defying PS3 titleInversion, a quintessential “double-A” shooter that was kind of awful but had a certain charisma. Assuming the report above is true, I wish the very best of luck to all at Saber in their efforts to de-Embrace themselves.
