Embracer Group acquires eight more studios including teams behind Duke Nukem and Ghostrunner

Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic) has done its latest round of studio shopping, picking up eight more studios including the creators of Duke Nukem and Ghostrunner.

The acquisitions include 3D Realms from Denmark, responsible for Duke Nukem and the original 2006 version of Prey. There’s also Slipgate Ironworks who are the team behind last year’s surprise parkour hit Ghostrunner. Both of those studios come in a sort of package deal and will be reporting under the company’s Saber Interactive arm who were themselves acquired back in 2020.

Deep Rock Galactic developer Ghost Ship Games will become a sister company to fellow Danish studio Coffee Stain. 11-11 Memories Retold studio DigixArt meanwhile, will find themselves now under the company’s Koch Media banner.

Other studios in the shopping basket include Huntdown‘s Easy Trigger Games, VR studio Force Field, mobile developer Crazy Labs and Viking-themed merch company Grimfrost. According to GamesIndustry.biz the studios were bought for a total of $313 million USD with an additional consideration of $232 million to be paid depending on the studios meeting agreed upon milestones.

Lars Wingesfors, co-founder and Group CEO of Embracer gave a quote in the announcement of the acquisitions. He said “I am excited to welcome more than 500 great talents across a wide range of well established businesses that further diversify and strengthen the group across the world from day one. Brick by brick we continue to improve our operating groups and consequently Embracer as a whole.”

Prior to today’s purchases, the previous round of Embracer Group studio acquisitions came about in February, when the company bought Borderlands developer Gearbox Software and porting specialists Aspyr Media.