[awkwardpotato]

Yes, they're also currently $2 billion dollars in debt and are attempting to split into 3 separate companies.

"Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends" - The legal successor to Embracer. For their triple A studios and major ip rights (they currently own the rights to LOTR-based games)

"Coffee Stain & Friends" - For their indie studios. (Named after their most successful indie studio, the people behind Goat Simulator and Satisfactory)

Asmodee - Their board and card game group. They took out a 900 million euro "financial agreement" with Embracer to pay back part of their debts. Officially a separate entity as of February.

[0] https://embracer.com/releases/embracer-group-announces-its-i...

[smcin]

Embracer acquired Asmodee 12/2021, made a spree of other debt-funded accquisitions packaged and prepped to sell the whole company to the Saudi sovereign wealth fund in 2022, but that deal fell through in 2023 and Embracer reportedly incurred €2 billion losses, laid off 8% of 17,000 Asmodee employees, then subsequently spun Asmodee out (now the board and card game unit) saddled with €900m Euro debt to pay off Embracer's actions.

The Asmodee spinout officially became a separate entity as of 2/2025, and has an 18 month deadline to refinance that debt. Fitch rates this BB- [0], which apparently implies >6% probability of default (at current interest rates). Asmodee will presumably achieve that by jacking up prices on existing (boardgame and cardgame) IP, and/or killing stuff that doesn't pay much, and/or refreshing newer versions of existing IP (like Sony Games' 2024 attempt to do forced relicensing on existing PS owners' libraries).

Right after the acquisition, Asmodee silently delisted beloved Steam titles like 'Pandemic' in early 2022 [1][2], without even notifying existing owners; and only 4 years after it had been released in 2018. Supposedly this after-sale revocation violates consumer laws in California and Australia (and maybe elsewhere); if Steam ever pulls the trigger on removing them we get to find out; meanwhile back up your binaries.

Asmodee also acquired the superb online site BoardGameArena.com in 2021, cofounders Grégory and Emmanuel both left in 2023 at the height of Embracer's pillaging.

I commented previously on Asmodee (mostly pre-Wingefors) milking the awful digital implementation of Terraforming Mars (which should have been a huge hit) for like 6 years without any meaningful playtesting or bugfixing [3][4].

Here are some Redditors helpfully filling in the gaps on Wingefors "I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism" token gesture towards humility [5].

Wingefors' behavior in divesting Asmodee and sticking it with much of the debt for his/ Embracer's failed Covid-era acquisition spree feels something like Bruce Willis strapping plastic explosive to the monitor and chair and dropping it down a 36-storey elevator shaft. Make impressive noise. Or like Restaurant at the End of the Universe when they crash the starship into the sun.

Given Lars Wingefors' trail of digital tears, why he is now begging private individuals to donate their physical copies of old videogames to a private physical archive noone can access or visit, to make him somehow look like a community-minded benefactor, is bizarre. He could simply donate to an existing online archive.

[0]: https://www.fitchratings.com/research/corporate-finance/fitc...

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29968054 [2]: https://delistedgames.com/pandemic-the-board-game/

[3]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42303399 [4]: https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraformingMarsGame/comments/1443i...

[5]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1cb93xy/embracer_ceo...

[smcin]

Here's more coverage of these events and user reactions from Reddit r/boardgames and citing industry insider articles; I was slightly wrong that the 2023 layoffs were from the other parts of Embracer Group not Asmodee:

"What the Asmodee debt deal means for the board game industry (a deeper dive)" (2024/5) https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1cht230/what_th...

"Can anyone explain what exactly is going on with Asmodee games?" (ObiWahnKenobi, 2024/5) https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1crau93/can_any...

"Asmodee spun out of Embracer Group, to become a standalone publicly traded company" (2024/4) https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/1ca8wdv/asmodee...

"Board game giant Asmodee’s corporate owner allegedly loses $2bn deal with Saudi Arabian partner | Dicebreaker" (2023/8) https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/15yd0g7/board_g...

[smcin]

Also I should have given more prominent mention of this site which IMO is more worthy and actionable than Wingefors' private physical archive:

https://delistedgames.com/

"Welcome to Delisted Games, a growing archive of 2,163 games you can't play" from game console libraries, Steam, etc. ("the town criers of video game disappearances... We research, catalog, and inform about today’s digital gaming landscape (hellscape) including store delistings, online service shutdowns and, simply put, cultural erasure").

(mentioned on HN previously in connection with the PS4 debacle [0]).

I mean there's a legitimate discussion to be had about game lifecycles and between Steam, Kickstarter, games publishers, video game consoles, value resellers like GOG, HumbleBundle, about what are more transparent, ethical ways to publish(/unpublish) and monetize games throughout their lifecycle, to different constituencies of player:

- early adopters/ alpha playtesters, who are happy with the tradeoff of a buggy and incomplete game they can play online with friends in return for a deep discount, early access, the ability to positively influence game devpt, maybe some swag or convention events

- beta playtesters, who expect a reasonably complete and stable game, an active community, forums, developers who are reponsive, regular (monthly/quarterly) bug rollups and fixes, etc.

- main-phase, who are happy to pay full price for a complete, bug-free game with tutorials, user guides, multilanguage online help, forums, etc., and have an expectation that they can quickly start an online multplayer/remote game with friends, strangers and AI.

- owners who still expect a basic post-lifecycle ability to play a game solo or against AI or other existing owners (after the publisher has disappeared or the game site has taken down infrastructure servers, achievements, forums, etc.) Such as happened with 'Pandemic' and Asmodee.

- to what extent should publishers be able to use exclusivity to lock in owners and extract revenues? what happens to digital rights after the monetizing is over? Can they retroactively convert a sale to a licensing (time-limited, region-locked, limited rights to play with friends and family...)? This is something where consumer law and regulators can limit bad behavior.

As a positive example of how to do this profitably and ethically, Civilization (Sid Meier Games/ Firaxis Games).

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25134263