Embracer Group chief executive Lars Wingefors has suggested he bears much of the blame for a “long list” of mistakes that led to the company's “painful” restructuring. .
After years of rapid expansion through mergers and acquisitions, Embracer announced last May that a $2 billion deal had fallen through at the last minute and it was embarking on a nine-month restructuring program. As a result, approximately 1,400 jobs were cut, studios were closed, and dozens of games were canceled.
The Swedish gaming giant and its CEO faced some backlash following the now-completed restructuring, but Wingefors told GamesIndustry.biz that much of the criticism leveled at him personally was probably justified. Ta.
“As a leader and an owner, sometimes you have to take responsibility and be humble and ask yourself if you made a mistake and what you could have done differently,” he said.
“I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism, but I don't think my team or company deserves all the criticism. I think a lot of the blame for that lies with myself. But ultimately… , we need to believe in the mission we set, that it is still valid, and that by doing this now we are making it possible [new] structure. “
Embracer on Monday announced plans to split into three separate entities: Asmodee, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle Earth Enterprises & Friends, each of which will be listed on the Stockholm Nasdaq as a separate company. Following the announcement, Mr. Wingefors gave a speech.
Asmodee will continue to act as a publisher and distributor of board games, trading cards, and digital board games.
Coffee Stain & Friends will focus on PC, console, and mobile games, including “community-driven free-to-play games, LiveOps games, and indie/AA games.”
It is divided into a premium division and a free-to-play division, with the former consisting of Coffee Stain, THQ Nordic, Ghost Ship, Tuxedo Labs, Tarsier, Amplifier Game Invest, and more.
Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends will focus on developing and publishing triple-A games for PC and consoles. The company will own his IPs in “The Lord of the Rings'' and “Tomb Raider,'' along with “Dead Island,'' “Metro,'' “Kingdom Come Deliverance,'' and more.
Studios participating in Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends include Crystal Dynamics, Dambuster, Eidos Montreal, Flying Wild Hog, Tripwire, Vertigo Games, Warhorse Studios, and 4A Games.
“We still feel trusted by many or all of the key entrepreneurs and CEOs who have joined the group,” Wingeforth said. “Although it was difficult, I think everyone believed in the Embracer mission. They also understood that the world had changed and that we needed to change.
“It hurts. We can't make all the games we wanted to make three years ago, but we have to adapt to that. We'll continue to make games, and we're going to continue to make games, and we're going to be the biggest, if not the biggest, games in the industry. We still have one game in the pipeline, and we have great plans for the coming years and decades.”
