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Embracer Group continues buying spree, adds Lord of the Rings IP, game studios

By George Yang Published August 18, 2022

Video game giant Embracer Group has obtained the rights for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien through its acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises. The holdings company also acquired multiple other gaming studios to form its new group, Embracer Freemode.

Embracer Group has made major acquisitions recently, positioning it as one of gaming’s biggest forces. It made headlines earlier this year when it acquired Square Enix’s Western studios, obtaining the IP rights to franchises like Deus Ex. Now, the company holds the rights to the Lord of the Ring series — not just the rights to publish video games based on the franchise, but the entire IP.

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The Lord of the Rings purchase is the most shocking bit of news from Embracer’s acquisition spree, but it’s only small piece of the company’s buying binge. Embracer Freemode will include the newly purchased Limited Run Games, Tuxedo Labs, Bitwave Games, Gioteck, Tripwire Interactive, Singtrix, and Tatsujin.

“Creators by their nature are at the forefront of industry-leading innovation and disruption, Lee Guinchard, Freemode CEO, said. “Founders are empowered to realize their true creative vision. Ultimately, our goal is to provide our entrepreneur-led companies with the essential resources to deliver the most exciting entertainment experiences for fans around the world.”

Bitwave Game, Tripwire Interactive, and Tuxedo Labs are game development studios. Bitwave also announced that it will be rereleasing retro titles like Truxton, Twin Cobra, Out Zone, and Zero Wing later this year. Tripwire is best known for games such as Killing Floor and Maneater, while Tuxedo Labs is the studio behind Teardown.

Tatsujin is Embracer’s first Japanese studio, led by Masahiro Yuge. Singtrix and Gioteck are more product companies, with the former focusing on music and audio gaming products while the latter creates gaming accessories like headsets and controllers. Limited Run Games creates physical copies of games and collector’s editions.

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George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…

Gaming

Saints Row developer Volition shut down by Embracer Group

The crew of the Saints Row reboot stands against a wall.

Volition -- the studio behind series like Saints Row -- has been shut down by Embracer Group.
Volition was first founded as Parallax Software in 1993, and made a name for itself over the past 30 years with series like Descent, Red Faction, and Saints Row. The studio has had many owners over that period, first being acquired by THQ before being sold to Plaion, which placed the developer under its Deep Silver label. Plaion and Deep Silver were then acquired by Embracer Group in 2018. Its most recent game, a reboot of Saints Row, was released last year to mixed reviews, which caused Embracer Group to then shift ownership of the studio over to Plaion's sister company, Gearbox Entertainment.
Saints Row is actually a PlayStation Plus Essential game this September, but the studio won't be around to see that because the decision has finally been made to close it. We first learned of this via a post on X from former Volition VFX artist Ryan Hoss; Volition went on to confirm the closure on LinkedIn.
"This past June, Embracer Group announced a restructuring program to strengthen Embracer and maintain its position as a leader in the video game industry," the message explained. "As part of that program, they evaluated strategic and operational goals and made the difficult decision to close Volition effective immediately. To help our team, we are working to provide job assistance and help smooth the transition for our Volition family members."
We reached out to Embracer Group for comment to see if it could provide more specific insight into why it chose to close Volition and will update this article when we get a response.

Gaming

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum publisher lays off internal development staff

Gollum stares at a cruel woman in The Lord of the Rings: Gollum.

The developer and publisher behind The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, Daedalic Entertainment, laid off its internal development staff so it can focus on game publishing going forward.

Daedalic Entertainment made a name for itself by developing and publishing a lot of adventure games and RPGs in the 2010s. It developed series like Deponia and Blackguards and published games like Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Inkulinati. Nacon acquired Daedalic in February 2022, ahead of the release of what was supposed to be its most ambitious title, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. When the game finally came out in May 2023 after multiple delays, it was a train wreck.
The game was near-unplayable for reviewers ahead of launch, and even when the game did work, its design felt outdated and unpolished. Digital Trends' one-star review of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum called it "a disaster in a way that I sincerely thought wasn’t possible anymore." Earlier today, German outlet Games Wirtschaft reported that Daedalic had closed its development branch, and the company confirmed that to Digital Trends in a statement.
"Daedalic Entertainment has made the decision to close its development department, with full focus now on our publishing business. Eight promising releases will be launching in this financial year alone," a spokesperson for Daedalic said. "Even though The Lord of the Rings: Gollum did not live up to the expectations we had for the game, we are very grateful for the opportunity and the learning experience it brought us."
Daedalic confirmed to Digital Trends that another Gollum patch is in the works but that an upcoming The Lord of the Rings game from Daedalic is canceled. It's a sad end to the Gollum saga for the developers involved, although Daedalic wants to frame this situation as a "new beginning" for the company.
"Currently, we are working on another patch for The Lord of the Rings: Gollum," the spokesperson continued. "A follow-up project in The Lord of the Rings universe that has already been started will be discontinued. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, as the body responsible for the federal funding, was informed of this some time ago. We value each and every member of our team very much, and it is important to us that the transition goes as well as possible. We will therefore support our former employees in finding new opportunities within our network. A difficult break, but also a new beginning in the already long history of Daedalic Entertainment."
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch.

Gaming

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was too broken to review on PS5

Gollum stares at the eye of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings: Gollum key art.

Update (5/26): We returned to the PlayStation 5 version of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum after Update version 1.003.000 was released, and have found the experience has improved notably. It does still feature plenty of bugs, which we experienced on the PC version, but it's far more stable on console now. Progression-preventing glitches have disappeared, and the updated PS5 version has yet to crash on us. If you're grabbing the game on console, make sure to download the patch before starting.

What's unclear is how many of the problems were actually fixed. During the review period, Nacon's PR team attributed Gollum's performance problems in part to a setting that animated the character's hair. The patch appears to remove that option from the game entirely. It's likely that the problems the toggle was causing still persist behind the scenes, so it's hard to say if the game was fully fixed, so much as a problem feature was cut.