You Will Be Embraced

It was, at one point, a little fun to watch Embracer Group’s actions as it slowly assimilated smaller development and production houses years ago, around the time when all they were acquiring were indie developers who might have needed financial help to fund their newest projects. None of the houses they were acquiring during this period were larger than THQ, the corporation and development subsidiaries they acquired the name to after the original THQ went bankrupt. But alarm bells should have been blaring during that period, because they were bound to make their way up the chain eventually.

It was mind-blowing enough when they announced their intent to acquire Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal earlier this year (the deal has yet to close, but it’s only a matter of time). Hit franchises like Tomb Raider and Deus Ex will come with them, though it wasn’t quite as alarming as it should have been thanks to the steal of a price they got the developers for. Their newest acquirements have laid bare how large of a megacorporation they’re becoming, and they’re too big to fail now.

The biggest was the acquirement of Middle-earth Enterprises, meaning Embracer will now own the catalogue and the worldwide rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit from J.R.R. Tolkien. The rights to previous films and other works will stay with the rights holders for now, meaning Warner Bros. will still own the rights to the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies alongside director Peter Jackson’s vision for them. But Embracer will now have the opportunity to pursue their own moneymaking ventures with the rights exclusively. It’s not a surprise that someone purchased the rights considering Middle-earth Enterprises put themselves and their properties up for sale in February. But few saw a megacorp that’s been sucking in companies like Kirby does food and enemies getting this organization too. Perhaps we all should have.

My big question is how Amazon didn’t get in on this. The company, a megacorporation on their own, is in the middle of promoting The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, set to be one of the most expensive — if not the most expensive — TV shows in history. They must seem sure that it will be one of their biggest hits, at least on par with Game of Thrones and upcoming prequel House of the Dragon for HBO, if they spent so much on it and started filming for the second season months before the first one debuted. You’d think they would want to secure the rights themselves for all the spinoffs they could pump out, but this could somehow be a case where Jeff Bezos was either outbid or forgot about it.

As an example of the ludicrous number of companies and IP Embracer will soon have in their possession: The rights to Kingdoms of Amalur and The Lord of the Rings will both be under Embracer. It will be tough to justify making games and assorted works in the former, which contains inspiration from LOTR, when the company can just use the real thing.

This wasn’t all. The other big acquisition announcement was for Limited Run Games, the company that gives limited print runs to physical games that would have struggled to receive them before they came around. It’s tough to tell what they could truly want them for, outside perhaps giving print runs to games from the staggering number of indie developers they own, but they’ll ideally have them otherwise operate as they have been.

In what felt like a preemptive response to the chorus of people who would ask whether Embracer has acquired enough companies and properties, they made it clear that they’re far from finished:

“In addition to the five communicated acquisitions today, Embracer has entered into agreement to acquire another company within PC/Console gaming that, for commercial reasons, is not disclosed today. The purchase price for this un-disclosed acquisition is in the range of being among either third or fourth largest of the Transactions.”

It’s tough to figure out what they’re referring to, but it sounds like another mid-range studio. My mind, for some cursed reason, wandered immediately to “WayForward.” I certainly hope I’m wrong, but it’s tough to see prominent indie developers remaining “indie” for long in this environment.

Perhaps Embracer should have been taken more seriously when this mass inhaling first began. In a better world, governments across the planet, especially those in Nordic countries where Embracer is headquartered, could have crafted laws to prevent the further rise of megacorporations in their backyards. It’s not just the formation of the larger Embracer that’s been frightening here, but the speed at which they’ve grown. We, regrettably, don’t live in that kind of world where government representatives take this as seriously as they should, meaning there’s nothing discouraging Embracer from continuing to devour while remaining hungry. Even if there existed a way to stop them, it’s far to late to utilize it on Embracer now.

With the organization owning so many companies, it’s difficult not to think that several of them and their properties will be lost in the shuffle, buried under more popular subsidiaries and their IP. I hope that doesn’t happen, but corporate history is littered with several examples in the entertainment sector. All we can do now is watch in horror.

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