Embracer sells Saber for $247 million, Metro devs at 4A Games get sold

The Embracer Group has divested another company, this time one of its biggest revenue-generating divisions.

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Just years after the Great Expansion from COVID-19 spending, the games industry is now facing a Great Contraction. Companies are laying off workers en masse, cutting production budgets, and essentially stocking firewood for a harsh winter. This financial pressure has led Embracer Group, a once-mighty gaming empire with dozens of games in development at any one given time, to sell pieces of itself off in order to stabilize its accounts.

The reports were right. Embracer has chosen to sell Saber Interactive, one of its best-earning games divisions. The rationale is simple: Embracer wants to reduce its spending, and divesting a group will eliminate that group's production costs while also delivering a premium in the process. Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch bought Saber's independence, as well as the rights of 12 other studios for a total purchase price of $247 million. Karch opened a new company, Beacon Interactive, a Florida-based LLC for the rights buyout, and Beacon now owns the rights to these studios.

"Today, through a company we formed called Beacon Interactive, we have agreed to buy back the rights to Saber (and all of its worldwide studios and exclusive contractor relationships), Mad Head, Digic, Nimble Giant, Fractured Byte, Slipgate, 3D Realms, New World Interactive, SPL, Stuntworks, Bytex, 4A and Zen (through options)," Karch told Saber employees, as per a letter obtained by Bloomberg.

The purchase price is $247 million, consisting of $203 million promissory notes and earn-out obligations of $44 million. There's also additional considerations for up to $94 million more,"if Matt would resell the business under certain conditions and certain time periods," Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors says.

While 4A Games will technically be a studio under Saber Interactive's control, Plaion, formerly known as Deep Silver, will receive royalties from licensing out the Metro series. This includes past games as well as the current games, Wingefors says. "The majority of economic upside remains within Embracer, regardless if this option is exercised or not."