Embracer group consciously uncouples

Embracer group, one of the biggest studios for nearly every type of game, decided a mutual breakup was in order. What does this mean for them? Find out below. Also the latest on Fortnite and more side quests than a Final Fantasy game. Let’s go! 

Breaking the Embrace

After losing out on a $2 billion partnership deal last year, Embracer Group decided it was time to try something different: break up. 

Before last year, Embracer lived up to its name. It purchased rights to the Lord of the Rings, studios like Gearbox and even board game companies like Asmodee. Since missing out on the partnership, the company has closed developers, cut employees and spun off studios like Gearbox and Saber Interactive. 

The company announced last week it will become three companies, each with a dedicated focus. The new companies are:

Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends. The big name game developer branch of the former Embracer Group will be the “creative powerhouse in AAA game development and publishing.” This branch continues to own the rights to The Lord of the Rings, Tomb Raider, Dead Island and Killing Floor.

Coffee Stain & Friends. A smaller publisher focused on indie, A/AA games and mobile. Some of the IP this company will own includes Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Simulator, Satisfactory, Wreckfest, Teardown, and Valheim.

Asmodee Group. The new company focused on tabletop gaming. Board games such as Ticket to Ride, 7 Wonders, Azul, CATAN and Exploding Kittens will be spun off into this company. They will also create tabletop games based on The Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Game of Thrones, and Star Wars franchises.

Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors says "I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism," but the leadership group for the new companies will remain the same. Read more about the split:

• Embracer Group splits into three: Everything you need to know
• Lars Wingefors on why Embracer is going away, and what happens next
• Embracer CEO Is Full Of Excuses

Fortnite’s big plans

There is a wealth of Fortnite news this week, including a look at their possible plans for the year. Here are the top headlines. 

• Billie Eilish is coming to Fortnite. Along with that announcement - confirmed by Eilish - came a rumored roadmap for the year. 

• As part of the announcement, Epic announced that Rock Band 4 controllers will now work with Fortnite Festival. 
• Epic now allows players to disable some “overly confrontational” emotes within the game.

• Fortnite's battle royale mode was hatched in the back of an Uber in “like, three hours.

Side quests (more stories worth reading)

🎮 NPR took an in-depth look at the gaming industry. From designing for those with disabilities to crunch workloads, check out the entire series. 

📊 Xbox hardware sales continue to fall hard, but games revenue for the company is up 52%. 

🧲 Switch 2 will reportedly replace slide-in Joy-Cons with a magnetic attached version. 

🤔 With the U.S. government set to ban TikTok due to Chinese ownership, could Fortnite and League of Legends be next? 

🐉 A new Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook is nearly complete, and it will contain four psionic subclasses. 

🛍️ Board game maker Goliath acquired Lucky Duck Games.

❗ Manor Lords launched on Friday, and has already sold over 1 million copies. 

▶️ Check out the trailer for the new Lord of the Rings game, Tales of the Shire. 

🕳️ Steam is closing a loophole that lets players request a refund for early access games. 

👎🏾 While fans aren’t happy, Garry's Mod is removing Nintendo-related items from its Steam Workshop following a takedown request.

📚 The Entertainment Software Association says publishers “won’t support libraries for preserving online games.” Ars Technica discusses if such a library could ever be legal. 

☢️ The Fallout TV show is making the game so popular, it’s breaking popular mod site NexusMods. 

💔 Meanwhile, the recent next generation update to Fallout 4 breaks mods, and has been so disastrous on PC that GOG rolled back the update. PlayStation players had their own issues.  

🐲 Dungeons & Dragons software Roll20 will now let you run games directly in Discord. 

😈 Diablo donated over 6.66 million maggots for Earth Day to help save birds. 

⛪ A priest was arrested for using over $40,000 worth of church funds on mobile games including Candy Crush and Mario Cart.

⛔ After being acquired by Microsoft, Blizzard says they will not hold a BlizzCon in 2024. Could this be a bad omen for the fan event? 

💸 Facebook has lost $1 billion every month on virtual reality since June 2022. 

😥 Metroid’s Samus didn’t appear in Fortnite because Nintendo wanted her to be a Switch exclusive.

🇺🇸 The MMO ArcheAge will go offline in Europe and North America in June. 

♟️ Board game maker CMON purchased Japon Brand, the company behind Love Letter and Machi Koro. 

🤖 Discord is going after bots that mine user data. 

👋 Capcom will delist Dark Void, Dark Void Zero and Flock from Steam in June. 

☢️The Fallout Commander decks for Magic: The Gathering are possibly their most successful ever. 

🔫 Bungie reversed a controversial plan to sunset weapons in Destiny 2. 

🐉 You can now get Dungeons & Dragons miniatures based on the ‘80s cartoon. 

🕹️ Polygon investigates what happens when your video game gets delisted?

🔼 A Konami code variant hidden in Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness was discovered 25 years after the game was released. 

🤔 Are we all just characters living in a strategy game? A new physics research paper suggests we are. 

New Releases this week:

4/30: Tales from Candleforth (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
5/2: Endless Ocean Luminous (Switch)
5/2: INDIKA (PlayStation, Xbox and PC)
5/2: MotoGP 24 (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)

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