Embracer's frustrated deal was with Saavy Games Group, the Saudi video game giant
, by Thibaut
Back in May 2023, Embracer Group announced the failure of a $2 billion partnership, an event that led to the company reestructuring plan, laying off 1,300 people and cancelling dozens of games. The company was also forced to sell Gearbox Software and Saber Interactive.
On GamesIndustry.biz, Matthew Karch, founder of Saber Interactive and former Embracer executive, confirmed that Saavy Games Group was indeed the Swedish company's partner in the famous $2 billion contract.
Karch stated that investing in the many games then in development at Embracer was "no longer sustainable", and that while the signing of the agreement "took a lot longer than expected", Embracer remained confident that it would end up coming through.
"It was basically placing too big of a bet on something that ultimately ended up not materializing for one reason or another", said Karch. He also defended his former boss, Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors, pointing out that it was the short-selling of shares that ended up causing the company's share price to fall. As a result, the company was forced to make plenty of redundancies and sell of some of its assets.
With the restructuring now complete, Matthew Karch believes that Embracer is now "small enough – still big, but small enough – that it's manageable".
Source: gamesindustry.biz