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Embracer Group
Embracer Group AB (formerly Nordic Games Licensing AB and THQ Nordic AB) is a Swedish video game and media holding company based in Karlstad. The company comprises six operative groups: CDE Entertainment, Dark Horse Media, Deca Games, Freemode, Plaion and THQ Nordic.
Embracer Group was established as Nordic Games Licensing within Nordic Games Group in 2011. The latter had previously purchased assets from the bankrupt publisher JoWooD and established Nordic Games GmbH (a subsidiary of Nordic Games Licensing) to manage them. Nordic Games Licensing continued to purchase intellectual property from defunct publishers, notably several THQ products in 2013, followed by the "THQ" trademark in 2014. In August 2016, Nordic Games Licensing and Nordic Games GmbH changed their names to THQ Nordic. The parent company became a public company in 2016 and changed its name to Embracer Group in 2019. Until 2023, Embracer Group rapidly grew through major acquisitions and investments. After a US$2 billion investment unexpectedly fell through, the company was more than $2 billion in debt and began closing and selling multiple studios and while laying off people at others.
On 22 April 2024, Embracer Group announced its intention to transform into three standalone publicly listed entities on Nasdaq Stockholm within the next two years: a board game segment under the Asmodee group, an indie games segment under Coffee Stain Group, and a segment to manage its library of licensed intellectual properties including that of Tolkien's Middle-earth under Fellowship Entertainment, all three entities will be under the new holding company Embracer AB.
The Swedish entrepreneur Lars Wingefors (born 1977) started several sales businesses during his teenage years, including the second-hand comic book seller LW Comics at age 13, which made close to 300,000 kr annually. At age 16, Wingefors founded Nordic Games to sell used video games by mail order; which generated 5 million kr in revenue in this first year. With growing income post 1994, Nordic Games was turned into a retail chain and opened seven locations across Sweden. In 1998, the company acquired Spel- & Tele shopen, a store in Linköping that Pelle Lundborg had opened at age 16 in 1994.
Towards the end of the 1990s, Nordic Games was suffering from a poor corporate structure. Although Wingefors was asked to either seek new partners or bring in venture capital, he opted to sell the company to Gameplay Stockholm, the Swedish subsidiary of Europe-wide retailer Gameplay.com. In March 2000 for stock valued at £5.96 million, with Wingefors becoming part of the European management. Under Gameplay.com, Nordic Games failed to generate much revenue. It tried to establish mobile game, digital distribution and cable TV box businesses, all of which did not gain traction. When the dot-com bubble burst, Gameplay.com faced financial issues, and Nordic Games was sold back to Wingefors in May 2001 for a symbolic sum of 1 kr. Wingefors brought in venture capitalists and reformed the company to only sell newly released games, but the company faced strong competition and finally filed for bankruptcy in 2004.
Wingefors invested the money he had left into a new limited company and, together with potential customers acting as investors, reformed Nordic Games under the name Game Outlet Europe. The new company saw success with purchasing unsold inventory from larger video game companies (such as Electronic Arts), repackaging them on pallets in its Karlstad headquarters, and selling them on the international market and through other retail chains, including Jula, Coop, and ICA. In December 2008, Nordic Games Publishing was established as the video game publishing subsidiary of Game Outlet Europe. The subsidiary started out with seven people, including primary shareholder Wingefors, based in Karlstad, and chief executive officer Lundborg, who had since moved to Málaga with his wife. Nik Blower in London was added to the management team in February 2010.
The idea behind Nordic Games Publishing was to invest in the development of games that would fill gaps in the video game market. Wingefors and Lundborg had noticed that the line-up of games for Nintendo platforms was lacking karaoke games similar to SingStar, which was exclusive to PlayStation consoles. Based on 100-page requirement documents from Nintendo, which included that the game's microphones should be produced by Logitech, and four months of research at a karaoke bar in Watford, England, Nordic Games Publishing assembled a song list for a prospective game and started producing what would later become We Sing. Around this time, Nordic Games Publishing also released Dance Party Club Hits, a dance game that came bundled with a dancing mat. In 2009, Nordic Games Publishing had a turnover of 50 million kr, of which 75% were accounted for by sales of We Sing. For 2010, the company projected a turnover of 200 million kr, while at the same time, Lundborg was looking for new investors to make the company independent of Game Outlet Europe. By March 2011, Nordic Games Holding had been established as a holding company, with Game Outlet Europe and Nordic Games Publishing aligned as its subsidiaries.
In June 2011, Nordic Games Holding acquired the assets of the insolvent publisher JoWooD and its subsidiaries. The acquired assets were transferred to Nordic Games GmbH, a newly established subsidiary office in Vienna, Austria. Several former JoWooD employees were hired by Nordic Games GmbH to work on the backlog sales of former JoWooD properties, and Nordic Games Publishing was integrated into Nordic Games GmbH to facilitate publishing operations. Nordic Games Licensing AB, also established in 2011, became the holding company within Nordic Games Holding (later known as Nordic Games Group), as well as the parent company of Nordic Games GmbH. Nordic Games acquired the Scandinavian business of retailer Game in May 2012. In April 2013, Nordic Games Licensing bought several assets of the bankrupt publisher THQ to be managed by Nordic Games GmbH. It obtained the "THQ" trademark in June 2014, intending to use the name as a publishing label for its THQ properties. Subsequently, in August 2016, the company changed its name to THQ Nordic, while Nordic Games GmbH became THQ Nordic GmbH. According to Wingefors and THQ Nordic GmbH's Reinhard Pollice, the name change was undergone to capitalise on the good reputation of THQ's past, although they avoided naming the companies just "THQ" to avoid connections to the bankrupt publisher's more recent troubled history.
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Embracer Group
Embracer Group AB (formerly Nordic Games Licensing AB and THQ Nordic AB) is a Swedish video game and media holding company based in Karlstad. The company comprises six operative groups: CDE Entertainment, Dark Horse Media, Deca Games, Freemode, Plaion and THQ Nordic.
Embracer Group was established as Nordic Games Licensing within Nordic Games Group in 2011. The latter had previously purchased assets from the bankrupt publisher JoWooD and established Nordic Games GmbH (a subsidiary of Nordic Games Licensing) to manage them. Nordic Games Licensing continued to purchase intellectual property from defunct publishers, notably several THQ products in 2013, followed by the "THQ" trademark in 2014. In August 2016, Nordic Games Licensing and Nordic Games GmbH changed their names to THQ Nordic. The parent company became a public company in 2016 and changed its name to Embracer Group in 2019. Until 2023, Embracer Group rapidly grew through major acquisitions and investments. After a US$2 billion investment unexpectedly fell through, the company was more than $2 billion in debt and began closing and selling multiple studios and while laying off people at others.
On 22 April 2024, Embracer Group announced its intention to transform into three standalone publicly listed entities on Nasdaq Stockholm within the next two years: a board game segment under the Asmodee group, an indie games segment under Coffee Stain Group, and a segment to manage its library of licensed intellectual properties including that of Tolkien's Middle-earth under Fellowship Entertainment, all three entities will be under the new holding company Embracer AB.
The Swedish entrepreneur Lars Wingefors (born 1977) started several sales businesses during his teenage years, including the second-hand comic book seller LW Comics at age 13, which made close to 300,000 kr annually. At age 16, Wingefors founded Nordic Games to sell used video games by mail order; which generated 5 million kr in revenue in this first year. With growing income post 1994, Nordic Games was turned into a retail chain and opened seven locations across Sweden. In 1998, the company acquired Spel- & Tele shopen, a store in Linköping that Pelle Lundborg had opened at age 16 in 1994.
Towards the end of the 1990s, Nordic Games was suffering from a poor corporate structure. Although Wingefors was asked to either seek new partners or bring in venture capital, he opted to sell the company to Gameplay Stockholm, the Swedish subsidiary of Europe-wide retailer Gameplay.com. In March 2000 for stock valued at £5.96 million, with Wingefors becoming part of the European management. Under Gameplay.com, Nordic Games failed to generate much revenue. It tried to establish mobile game, digital distribution and cable TV box businesses, all of which did not gain traction. When the dot-com bubble burst, Gameplay.com faced financial issues, and Nordic Games was sold back to Wingefors in May 2001 for a symbolic sum of 1 kr. Wingefors brought in venture capitalists and reformed the company to only sell newly released games, but the company faced strong competition and finally filed for bankruptcy in 2004.
Wingefors invested the money he had left into a new limited company and, together with potential customers acting as investors, reformed Nordic Games under the name Game Outlet Europe. The new company saw success with purchasing unsold inventory from larger video game companies (such as Electronic Arts), repackaging them on pallets in its Karlstad headquarters, and selling them on the international market and through other retail chains, including Jula, Coop, and ICA. In December 2008, Nordic Games Publishing was established as the video game publishing subsidiary of Game Outlet Europe. The subsidiary started out with seven people, including primary shareholder Wingefors, based in Karlstad, and chief executive officer Lundborg, who had since moved to Málaga with his wife. Nik Blower in London was added to the management team in February 2010.
The idea behind Nordic Games Publishing was to invest in the development of games that would fill gaps in the video game market. Wingefors and Lundborg had noticed that the line-up of games for Nintendo platforms was lacking karaoke games similar to SingStar, which was exclusive to PlayStation consoles. Based on 100-page requirement documents from Nintendo, which included that the game's microphones should be produced by Logitech, and four months of research at a karaoke bar in Watford, England, Nordic Games Publishing assembled a song list for a prospective game and started producing what would later become We Sing. Around this time, Nordic Games Publishing also released Dance Party Club Hits, a dance game that came bundled with a dancing mat. In 2009, Nordic Games Publishing had a turnover of 50 million kr, of which 75% were accounted for by sales of We Sing. For 2010, the company projected a turnover of 200 million kr, while at the same time, Lundborg was looking for new investors to make the company independent of Game Outlet Europe. By March 2011, Nordic Games Holding had been established as a holding company, with Game Outlet Europe and Nordic Games Publishing aligned as its subsidiaries.
In June 2011, Nordic Games Holding acquired the assets of the insolvent publisher JoWooD and its subsidiaries. The acquired assets were transferred to Nordic Games GmbH, a newly established subsidiary office in Vienna, Austria. Several former JoWooD employees were hired by Nordic Games GmbH to work on the backlog sales of former JoWooD properties, and Nordic Games Publishing was integrated into Nordic Games GmbH to facilitate publishing operations. Nordic Games Licensing AB, also established in 2011, became the holding company within Nordic Games Holding (later known as Nordic Games Group), as well as the parent company of Nordic Games GmbH. Nordic Games acquired the Scandinavian business of retailer Game in May 2012. In April 2013, Nordic Games Licensing bought several assets of the bankrupt publisher THQ to be managed by Nordic Games GmbH. It obtained the "THQ" trademark in June 2014, intending to use the name as a publishing label for its THQ properties. Subsequently, in August 2016, the company changed its name to THQ Nordic, while Nordic Games GmbH became THQ Nordic GmbH. According to Wingefors and THQ Nordic GmbH's Reinhard Pollice, the name change was undergone to capitalise on the good reputation of THQ's past, although they avoided naming the companies just "THQ" to avoid connections to the bankrupt publisher's more recent troubled history.