The last year or so was a slow-moving calamity for the Embracer Group the major company’s unprecedented wave of studio acquisitions. And after announcing on April 22 that the company was planning to split into three different companies, Embracer’s CEO is inundated with excuses as to why his gaming empire collapsed, blaming it on everything from Covid-19. 19 to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In a new interview with Gamedeveloper.comEmbracer CEO Lars Wingefors explained why the company and all of its assets and studios were divided into three different business divisions, suggesting that the plan will allow the companies to “better finance our businesses.”
“We need the optimal structure so that these companies can be successful. “We are a listed company and the current structure within Embracer Group is not optimal in the current environment,” Wingefors said in the interview, which took place shortly after the demerger was announced on Monday.
Embarcer’s CEO offers excuses and dodges blame
According to Wingefors, you shouldn’t blame yourself The collapse of Embracer on the company purchase I have quickly founded several studios in the last few years without a real game plan. Instead, the CEO gave other excuses as to why Embracer had to die.
“We had a number of years, 2019 and 2020, where the cost of capital was very low and investors’ willingness to invest in growth organically and inorganically [mergers and acquisitions] was endless.”
“We also had a booming gaming market, especially during COVID, and we had a much more solid geopolitical situation, for example in Russia. All these factors have changed a lot,” Wingefors added.
The CEO also blamed bad games and “consumers” who didn’t want to buy Embracer’s games.
“At the end of the day,” said Wingefors, “regardless of the financial market, the products we develop must find the consumer and they must be willing to pay for them – and they have many different options.”
Embracer is dying, but not because you all hated it
Oh, and the Embracer name will go away, but not because people (and investors) despised the company after it laid off employees, closed studios, etc. Projects killedand he failed to produce many games. No, it has nothing to do with that at all, says the CEO.
“These name changes are strategic decisions aimed at enabling each new company to develop its own unique brand identity, tailored to its specific business focus and maximizing its potential in the market,” Wingefors said, apparently trying to setting a record for the most keywords in a single answer.
On April 23rd in another part of the same interviewWingefors somehow, but not completely took some of the blame for Embracer’s collapse.
“As a leader and owner, sometimes you have to take the blame and be humble when you have made mistakes and could have done something differently,” the CEO said.
“I’m sure I deserve a lot of criticism, but I don’t think my team or my companies deserve all the criticism. I could take a lot of this blame myself. But at the end of the day, I have to believe in the mission that we set out to do, and that’s still valid, and we’re making that possible now by doing this [new] Structure.”
When gaming industry When he asked Wingefors about any mistakes he had made, he declined to give details, instead pointing to a “long list” of things he had done Embracer could have done it differently, but added that he remains committed to the company’s overall strategy. You see, the strategy cost the company a lot of money, burdened it with debt, resulted in numerous layoffs, and ultimately resulted in the company being split into three different companies that now exist under a holding company that is not allowed to use the Embracer name because it is directly linked to failure.
And the man behind this strategy, who appears unwilling to take the blame and only offers slogans and excuses, will continue to lead the new version of Embracer. Because some people fail at the top.
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