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THQ Nordic parent company acquires Saber Interactive for $150 million

The developers behind the Witcher 3 Switch port and the World War Z game have been picked up by THQ Nordic parent company Embracer Group for an alleged $150 million.

TJ Denzer

February 19, 2020 9:20 AM

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Saber Interactive has been a busy and lucrative studio throughout the last year. Even before they put together a successful and solid port of Witcher 3 for the Nintendo Switch, they also scored quite some success with their video game adaptation of World War Z. Now, it seems they’ll be joining the likes of THQ Nordic and a number of other major developers and publishers with THQ’s parent company Embracer Group. Embracer Group has reportedly bought Saber Interactive for $150 million.

Embracer Group’s purchase of Saber Interactive was revealed on February 19, 2020, via a press release from the former. According to the press release, the purchase will be at least $150 million, “plus an earn-out consideration, subject to fulfillment of agreed milestones, of a maximum USD 375 million.” In addition, Saber Interactive owners Matthew Karch and Andrey Iones will jointly become the second-largest shareholders within the Embracer Group.

According to Embracer group, it was Saber’s high level of success in 2019 that drew their full attention to the developer.

“Saber has been on our radar for a very long time because of their deep history of consistently high-quality work,” said Embracer Group Founder and CEO Lars Wingefors. “Their ambitious moves towards self-funding projects in recent years have been particularly impressive, especially with World War Z, which sold more than three million units. While Saber will remain a standalone company within Embracer Group, we look forward to collaborating with them to elevate their ability to create and market premier titles.”, says Lars Wingefors, Founder and CEO of Embracer Group.”

This purchase also comes after THQ Nordic just finished opening Nine Rock Studios with former Bohemia Interactive (ARMA, DayZ) staff with the help of Embracer Group. Some of Saber Interactive’s other new company includes Airship Syndicate (Darksiders), Black Forest Games (Destroy All Humans), and Experiment 101 (Biomutant).

Safe to say Saber is among a good crowd, and they too could probably benefit from Saber’s regularly solid efforts, as seen on the likes of Witcher 3 for Switch and World War Z.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.