80 Game Cancellations 44 Studio Shutdowns 4532 Layoffs

@vxicepickxv

8 күн бұрын

80 Game Cancelations 44 Studio Shutdowns 4532 Layoffs

@TokenOracle

8 күн бұрын

80 Game Cancellations 44 Studio Shutdowns 4532 Layoffs

@samtinkle9076

8 күн бұрын

80 Game Cancellations 44 Studio Shutdowns 4532 Layoffs ...that is when the world will end. Wait, no, that's another set of numbers /j

@antonyduhamel1166

8 күн бұрын

80 Game Cancellations 44 Studio Shutdowns 4532 Layoffs

@1inchPunchBowl

8 күн бұрын

80 Game Cancellations 44 Studio Shutdowns 4532 Layoffs

There need to be a law against taking on debt you never plan to pay. Because that's what CEOs do: They take loans on a company, use the loan to pay themselves bonuses, than let the company die. Before doing the same to another company.

@Boonehams

8 күн бұрын

What!? Corporate regulation? In a capitalist society? Are you mad!?

@chaosryans

8 күн бұрын

Don't you know? Its how they avoid paying taxes. You claim business losses and sometimes the government will cut you another 50million dollar check. Then you close the studio, say it was a billion dollar purchase and now its worth nothing, so you can basically null out your revenue on the tax sheet for a couple years.

@masterbasher9542

8 күн бұрын

At this rate, the only sane move would be to either pirate or avoid any further games indirectly owned by Embracer.

@Ahrpigi

8 күн бұрын

It's fraud, plain and simple,and should be prosecuted as such.

@chernobyl169

8 күн бұрын

If I get a credit card I don't intend to pay, I face lots of legal troubles. If a CEO takes a debt they don't intend to pay, they declare bankruptcy. Corporations aren't people; people are beholden to the law.

If every mistake I made netted me a multi-million dollar bonus from shareholders who only care about line go up (and I was a psychopath who cared nothing for the harm my mistakes caused), _why would I learn a damn thing?_

@JorgeLopez-qj8pu

7 күн бұрын

Wrong, you would learn, to do the same thing, but even worse than before.😮‍💨

@banquetoftheleviathan1404

7 күн бұрын

Beurocracy removes the need for psychopaths because the separation between persons is built in. It's a psychopathic system, it is.

@Sauvva_

7 күн бұрын

yeah, when pirate software said "it is bad business" i started questioning his inteligence, for the people doing the "bad business" is is great business, the people being affected dont have a say in the decisions, the reward for a good work is having the company you work for being bought and firing you

@artbargra

5 күн бұрын

This. If those executives do _anything,_ it is because it benefits them. Do they care about the layoffs? Of fucking course not - it's net profit for them. They are psycopaths, that's what they are.

It's not just the video game industry that Embracer Group has harmed. They also harmed the comic book and tabletop games industries. Dark Horse Comics may or may not survive, and Asmodee has been saddled with so much debt that its future looks very uncertain.

$1.5 Billion? That's a whole-ass Alex Jones!

@lunasophia9002

8 күн бұрын

Not for long 😂

@darkangelgeneral

8 күн бұрын

with the same maturity too XD

@Andrew12217

8 күн бұрын

They are turning the gamers gay!!!

@jrcbroolz

8 күн бұрын

No that's way more than Jones is actually worth, that's just what the settlement was (which is also likely to go down on appeal, I think - vaguely recall something about multiplier limit on damages in the Legal Eagle vid)

@cmdraftbrn

8 күн бұрын

they hate our children /s

Imagine being SO incompetent that Saudi Arabia basically pulls the equivalent of "Putting a bill on a hook line and pull it when someone bends to pick it" and actually destroys your entire plan with the equivalent of a 7 year old's prank!!!

@justcommenting4981

7 күн бұрын

Was it incompetence? They came out richer no? I think the idea that creating a successful business is the goal is a mistake. Like the idea any shitecoins take off is kind of a fantasy with the actual purpose being pump and dump. Here it's acquire and fire. Accumulating all these studios probably relates to some bs metric that they are trying to boost to justify a higher share price. Not unlike how Wells Fargo opened thousands of fake bank accounts because it had some nebulous connection to their share price historically. If it made the right people more money it was not incompetent, they do it on purpose.

@Grogeous_Maximus

6 күн бұрын

I'm starting to wonder if they're kind of causing this much chaos on purpose. All the the talk of unionizing kind of went away here in 2024, didn't it....

"two billion dollar deal" and "verbal agreement" are two sets of words that should never be in the same sentence, unless that sentence is "make sure that your ______________ is not a _____________"

I was today years old when I learned embracer group was THQ Nordic

@TheSkittlesmcgee

8 күн бұрын

Yeah, me too. I remember not that long ago when THQ Nordic was that quirky publisher that took the odd little indie games that nobody else wanted. I thought they were great. Now I'm sad.

@Sonichero151

8 күн бұрын

Oh no....... I was rooting for THQ Nordic back in the beginning......

@Cyromantik

8 күн бұрын

Eff me, same here! They ninja-looted us all!

@ebbderelict

8 күн бұрын

@@TheSkittlesmcgee Same.

@Pokeybuffalo

7 күн бұрын

Same I thought they were a little underdog publisher

Oh but you missed one of the most juicy parts! Embracer has cut itself into three parts. "Middle-Earth Enterprises and Friends" (that what will be milked), "Coffee Stain and friends" (all the Indi stuff) and "Asmodee Groud" (all the board games PLUS a 900 million USD loan!) So almost all debts are shoved into the only asset that has physical products. YEAH! *head desk*

@leahmacdonald5122

8 күн бұрын

Oh, and when they shut down Volition. They did it at the end of the month so no one would have healthcare for the following month.

@nightcatarts

8 күн бұрын

I still don't understand why Asmodee ever sold out. Last thing I heard before the announcement was that they were doing gangbusters.

@SomeDudeOnYouTube

8 күн бұрын

@@nightcatarts Yeah but that was the aftermath of the board game high that was the pandemic. Everybody stayed at home and got video and board games.

@nightcatarts

7 күн бұрын

@@SomeDudeOnKZread They were making inroads to digital board games too though, then it all went very quiet after the takeover.

@JohnPannozzi

7 күн бұрын

Thank you so much for pointing this out.

Never been such a ironically named company as Embracer group

@rgal

8 күн бұрын

Should have been called Extinguisher instead.

@megamage911

8 күн бұрын

I made a similar joke a few months ago when news about more layoffs came out, I said: "For a group named "Embracer" they sure do a lot of not that"".

@insu_red

8 күн бұрын

The cold embrace of death

@DavidRichardson153

8 күн бұрын

Nah, it is like how a certain kind of political group always includes terms like "Freedom" and "Patriot" in their name(s) as they do the opposite of what those terms mean.

@EastyyBlogspot

8 күн бұрын

@@DavidRichardson153 The people's party lol

I still remember when Squenix sold a bunch of their western studios and IPs to Embracer for pennies in Squenix' pursuit of crypto and NFTs and how genuinely happy i was as i thought that would allow those studios to make games they wanted... How wrong I was

I wish you'd covered what has happened to the other non-video game companies that Embracer Group devoured and then screwed over. The full picture is horrific.

@Phalanx167

8 күн бұрын

Yea, they have hit the Tabletop space as well for example, gobbling up and gutting Asmodee. The are a private equity cancer killing healthy companies to feed their endless appetites.

@MrBizteck

7 күн бұрын

Havent they kiled Star wars TT games. X wing and Legion.

@Phalanx167

7 күн бұрын

@MrBizteck Just X-Wing and Armada it appears so far.

@ceilyurie856

7 күн бұрын

@@Phalanx167 WTF, Weren't those SUCCESSFUL!?

@CaptainRufus

7 күн бұрын

​@@ceilyurie856 those games were dying already though. 2nd edition X Wings mere announcement basically stomped it. It was so blatantly greedy and insulting to the current playerbase lots of people quit entirely. And game shops have been clearancing the game for months if not well over a year. Maybe it made it a better game but the way they handled the transition was so greedy and an obvious disrespect to the players lots of people noped out. Like it approached the original Mage Knight 2nd edition in basically killing the game. These games are built on popularity and having people to play. If even a decent number of folks quit? It snowballs. This is why Warhammer 40k, Magic, and DnD are always the top of their genres. They are so huge and have so many players everyone else kind of has to play them or go find another pastime. They are so huge they have to really screw up to take a hit. And sadly any time another competitor gets close they make critical mistakes that kill them and everyone goes back to the 3 games that need to go away.

I’ve been keeping track since last October when the firings started. We are nearing, if not exceeded, 35,000 jobs lost, not even a year yet… this is a video game crash. There’s no other way of looking at it. This crash is not reminiscent of 1983 where people stopped buying games. This is caused by another problem, that’s the mis-distribution of wealth. Not in terms of economic equality, it’s far worst than that, as investment money is being stolen as well. It’s not even about making all of the money, it’s by keeping all of the money. It’s to the point where ‘oh, you made me a billion dollars, thank you! So, you’re fired, so I can keep the salary I was gonna pay you, for myself, and your bonus, and if you had any shared revenue based on sales, it’s mine too.’ There needs to be new regulations against CEO’s and its share holders about how the money is distributed. Because the money isn’t going through circulation through the economy. Just stacks sitting in a bank not being invested. Economies of all nations will crumble, and has crumbled throughout history, because money was just taken and sat on.

@OscarFowler

8 күн бұрын

The industry is eating itself in order to award the smallest number of owners the greatest amount of wealth. It's killing its children to feed its ever-more-obese parents.

@cupsnlantern

7 күн бұрын

They're like dragons sitting on piles of gold. They're an active detriment to the economy.

@BagOfMagicFood

7 күн бұрын

They're like barons who rob us all!

@Bluecho4

7 күн бұрын

I'm genuinely of the belief the Capitalist class looks at what will likely be the collapse of the economy, the democratic political order, and the environment, and resolved themselves to looting the global economy for all it's worth. To seize as much money and profit as they can, however they can, while there's still money to be made. It's an insane mentality to have. But I don't trust the rich to make sensible decisions. It's easier for them to imagine the end of the world than the end of Capitalism. And they cannot imagine NOT doing as much Capitalism as possible before the end.

@Wiimeiser

7 күн бұрын

I'd give the industry ba Gini Coefficient of 99.7, to be honest.

i think the safest thing to do when a big company wants to buy your game studio is to say no the second-safest thing to do is to take the money, immediately distribute it among all your employees, and then shrug as they all mysteriously quit.

@antney7745

8 күн бұрын

Then they all start their own new studio together.

@arx3516

8 күн бұрын

Here's the preparations needed: you create a second separate company wich hires all your employees, this new company (wich we wil call B) contracts the workers to the main company (A), and you also transfer the ownership of the IPs to yourself. Then you sell company A for a few millions, but company A is just a shell company, with no assets, IOs or employees.

@theghosty99

7 күн бұрын

And the big buyer would be delighted, because their fucking lizard brains just see "wow 100% costs cut from payroll! now profit number go up!" as their nurses change their overflowing drool cups

@markusmccloud343

7 күн бұрын

Right? If the big boys can get away with doing their business through shell corporations, why not us?

@shraka

7 күн бұрын

@@arx3516 Wouldn't work. They've got people to ensure they get your IP. Definitely make sure your employees get a pay day because their jobs are not secure, but if the holding company fires you, just go start something else with some fresh ideas.

We can safely say that we’re in a Video Game Crash, right? If the most “successful” companies in one of the most profitable industries on the planet are laying off thousands and shuttering hundreds of studios, we can call this a Crash, right?

@screeno42

8 күн бұрын

Not quite? I'd call it a crash if it was industry wide, but the current issues are almost exclusively in the aaa space. Most of the indie and aa space seems either stable or on the rise.

@jackcoleman1784

8 күн бұрын

​@@screeno42Yeah I agree. The indie companies are actually killing it right now and good for them. We might be on the long cusp of an incoming crash but I don't think it's quite hit yet.

@ramenbomberdeluxe4958

8 күн бұрын

@@jackcoleman1784 Yeah, its almost like normal studios in this modern late stage capitalist nightmare world understand the concept that you can just make a normal profit and still succeed, while the AAA studios and big businesses are a bunch of screaming whining manchildren who want every penny in the world or else they'll throw a tantrum.

@AX02Crusnik

8 күн бұрын

​@@jackcoleman1784hopefully it doesn't result in a crash and instead AAA open their fucking eyes and realize that spending exorbitant amounts of money on graphics and cast/mocap while also having no definite gameplan and aimlessly pivoting directions for years is a recipe for abject failure.

@jackcoleman1784

8 күн бұрын

@@AX02Crusnik I mean I'd like to hope but as Stephanie has pointed out time and time again the people making these decisions don't learn. They're stupid enough they might not learn even if they weren't able to fire people to cover for their stupid mistakes to appease investors and unfortunately that's something they are still able to do. They can't even figure out that well made single player games are a consistent dependable source of revenue that should be invested in long term. To them a medium that we love so much is just a casino where instead of playing with their own money they're effectively playing with the livelihoods of other decent people.

In their defence, nobody saw this coming. Wait, no, the other thing.

@robinbanksy2926

8 күн бұрын

*To their offence, everybody (except Steph, the "Casandra" of video games, lol) saw this coming. There, fixed it for you. Nothing against Steph, just taking shits where I can like the shitposter I am. Thank god for her though!

@nobodyinparticular7828

8 күн бұрын

@@robinbanksy2926 Is there a reverse of the phrase "a broken clock is right twice a day"? I feel like that would be applicable here.

@Tengila

7 күн бұрын

@@nobodyinparticular7828 'to err is human', maybe?

@captainunderpants200

7 күн бұрын

@@nobodyinparticular7828 I was watching an old Shitstorm of Scariness last night and Matt at one point said "You can't trust clocks, they're wrong at least twice a day." 😂

Thank you for keeping a thankless vigilance against the corrupt capitalistic encroachment on our favorite hobby!

@lexruptor

8 күн бұрын

I mean, I thank God for them all the time and I'm atheist, it's definitely not thankless, more like thank minimal lol

@lexruptor

8 күн бұрын

In fact, look at the comments, there are many thanks tbh.

@ramenbomberdeluxe4958

8 күн бұрын

@@lexruptor Well, to be fair, JimSteph did sort of take a reputational hit post-coming out and in general for their more negative lean on content over the past couple years, the former being due to a bigoted hate wave that bit a chunk out of their subs, while the latter is more people not wanting to hear constant negativity. I get why Tav would assume poor Jim is considered largely thankless (that is, people dont appreciate their work) nowadays :(

@jack-a-lopium

8 күн бұрын

@@ramenbomberdeluxe4958 Don't you think that they've pivoted to a 'just making people angry for financial gain' is a bit bad?

@fartface8918

8 күн бұрын

@@jack-a-lopium 1 no i don't think they have and it wouldn't be bad without added different failings if she did 2 that framing is overly harsh 3 this is non squitter to the comment your responding to

It absolutely should be illegal to hire new people after laying others off to save money. In fact that's exactly a thing in my country, and I'll give you an example: My friend had low but still higher wage than other employees due to experience bonus + being a manager. The company terminated their contract for financial reasons despite both a.) proof none of the claimed issues came from their department and b.) the company by in large making record revenue. For months the company couldn't give the position for anyone, and hiring anyone new would be clear evidence for the unlawful firing, which (obvious to anyone but the executives) would be even more of a problem during summer vacations for which they'd depended on temporary new hires. Meanwhile my friend enjoyed using all of their paid vacations (during which the company still had the gall to ask them to work). And of course the company came crawling back re-hiring them because it had no other options, and my friend agreed - after negotiating a higher wage :)

@Roxor128

4 күн бұрын

I like the idea of banning businesses from hiring anyone after making a layoff. How long, though? Five years?

We are in a modern robber baron era.

@qchtohere8636

8 күн бұрын

Nah... Robber barons had no control over policy... Welcome to technofeudalism.

@theangryholmesian4556

6 күн бұрын

Robber barons, ethnic cleansing, the scapegoating of sexual and gender minorities, the rise of fascism, the 20s are so back baby! /S.

'Big business' has rotted, from inside-out, every hobby (they call them 'industries')or art form threatening to bring revenue, to moisten their salivating beaks with. It's a personality defect infecting anywhere and anyone you once drew pleasure from. Long live Indie studios - we will need you to fill the void once Embr- I mean 'Unicron' is buried under it's own rotten creation.

@lexruptor

8 күн бұрын

Even Indie isn't safe, as soon as an Indie game gets popular, what happens? It goes mainstream and things turn bad.

@adamfrazer5150

8 күн бұрын

@@lexruptor you're not wrong - a good game is often one that sells well and that scent always hits the greediest noses. I used to limit my ire to just our 'industry', but looking around I see all the same signs and trails of grease sliming from one beloved universe to the next - with utter indifference.

@ramenbomberdeluxe4958

8 күн бұрын

@@lexruptor Not always, we've seen indie games, BIG ones no less, still keep their heads on the straight and narrow and succeed as normal, functional, full, finished products as well. Hell, I think one time, an indie creator outright publicly mentioned rejecting the offer for a big studio to buy out their product.

@LadyDoomsinger

8 күн бұрын

No mate, the "big business" was rotted from the start. The first idiot who uttered the phrase "businesses exist to make money" dunked the entire concept of "business" in a giant pool of shit. Businesses exist to make *products* - the money was supposed to be compensation for time and resources spent making the product, not the end goal.

@MrCrunchytime

8 күн бұрын

​@ramenbomberdeluxe4958 But that's just it, though. Those are the exceptions, not the standard. That's not to say they shouldn't be noted, but one must keep in mind that morality swings like a pendulum, and money is incredibly motivating. People say a lot of things... right up until money - a lot of money - gets involved.

The USA desperatley need a lot more corporate regulation.

@randomtinypotatocried

8 күн бұрын

Not just the US at this point. It's ridiculous how many countries have allow this shit to go down

@seanjordan6395

7 күн бұрын

That’s a fun way to say torches and guillotines

@DrownedInExile

7 күн бұрын

Fat chance, because something something socialism communism blah blah blah.

@lancelotto475

7 күн бұрын

The Embracer Group is based in Sweden.

@BagOfMagicFood

7 күн бұрын

​@@DrownedInExile Well, that's more reason we need to vote out all the "Socialism bad" people.

So the fun part is Nordic bought the rights to THQ Then changed THQ's legal name to THQ Nordic Then used the legal entity THQ Nordic to buy Nordic, making the original studio look like it was bought out when it was purposeful obfuscation on Lars's end.

@loorthedarkelf8353

8 күн бұрын

Additional Contex from my personal experience When South Park the Stick Of Truth was in development I was following it Very Closely, because I had just gotten back into South Park as an adult who now understood Satire rather than a tween who thought everything was serious. Originally, THQ was developing it, and from articles I was reading Matt and Trey had picked that studio specifically because They Loved Games and wanted a good studio behind the project. Then THQ went bankrupt, and Nordic bought the rights to Stick Of Truth. Then became THQ Nordic, and then contracted with Obsidian to finish development. Obsidian ( formally the developers of Black Rock Isle and o.g developers of Fallout and Fallout 2, who had to fight Bethesda to even MAKE New Vegas after Betheada secured the IP as part of their protfolio ) has fought to remain only a development team and not escalate into being a publisher, and publishers like Bethesda demand IP rights whenever there's a distribution deal to be made. So they didn't get to keep working on the series-- instead THQ Nordic sold the IP off to Ubisoft, which is why Fractured But Whole was made by an entirely different dev team that was glad to degrade the experience with brand deals and Ubisoft Account Integration fighting you every time you try to play the game you legally bought. So yeah, I just happened to be watching when the shell game began.

Thank God for Jim Stephanie Sterling

@joeschmoe2843

7 күн бұрын

Son.

Stephanie's hatred falls from the heavens pure. We cannot blame Stephanie's hate for being soiled by the video game industry.

For every 1 studio Embracer shut down, 2 games were canceled, and 103 employees were laid off. Try imagining 103 people gathering in front of your home every single day for the next 6 weeks. That's just a taste of the damage they've done.

Follow up video request: Do one on Matt Karch and Saber Interactive. That guy failed so spectacularly as the COO, but then raised even more money to buy back his studio’s independence with the IP of the studios he helped to kill and rebranded as Beacon Interactice.

@Matizicov

8 күн бұрын

Ohh yeah I gotta look into this

Ugh. A friend of mine works at a studio that was in talks with Embracer. They dodged the bullet, while so many others didn't. The whole situation is beyond awful.

0:36 Zilla deserves a raise

@ZMannZilla

7 күн бұрын

100 Likes and I'll attach a screenshot of this to my next invoice :D

@Mene0

7 күн бұрын

@@ZMannZilla I'm liking this 100 times but it only counted 1??? KZread please?

@ChristopherHallett

7 күн бұрын

@@ZMannZilla Invoices? You're a subcontractor?!? Fuck that shit, we want ZMann hired on permanent full-time with health insurance, annual leave, and benefits!

@ZMannZilla

7 күн бұрын

@@ChristopherHallett I appreciate you but I'm quite happy with being able to choose my own clientele and set my own rates. How about we advocate for universal healthcare instead!

44 Axed Studios, 80 Axed Games, 4,532 Axed Jobs, 0 Fucks Given

I had no idea they used to be THQ Nordic. This is horrible news. I used to enjoy some of their games.

@jack-a-lopium

8 күн бұрын

Not exactly, they were always a holding group. JSS has adopted the alt-right method of 'just making people angry for financial gain'.

@l12la

8 күн бұрын

@@jack-a-lopium Oh please, Embracer was literally called THQ Nordic. Yes, the games publisher THQ Nordic GmbH is technically a separate company, but it was founded as (and still is) a subsidiary of the holding company. This is like complaining about someone saying Google when they mean Alphabet Inc.

@jacksonteller3973

8 күн бұрын

@@jack-a-lopium no lying nazi

@ChristopherHallett

7 күн бұрын

@@jack-a-lopium You're either being wildly disingenuous and dishonest or you're incredibly stupid. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume it's the first one - you're a liar.

@jlev1028

6 күн бұрын

​@jack-a-lopium There's a room in Hell empty for a corporate shill. I think you'd fit there.

It's such an awful feeling knowing some of your favorite game studios are just waiting for the axe to drop when their corporate owners inevitably screw something up and need to cut costs. I love Satisfactory and Deep Rock galactic, and their developers have generally been very consumer-friendly so far, but I know it's a matter of when, not if, they will receive Embracer's mandate to ruin their games for a quick buck for the leeches up top.

@Wiimeiser

7 күн бұрын

Are they owned by Embracer? Though I guess that applies even if they're not.

Thank you for this piece on Embracer. I'm getting tired of studios treating layoffs like a K/D/A record they're proud of.

Five years from now: "Well, nobody wants to make video games anymore so I guess we'll *have* to use AI now"

"Embracer wept, because they had no more companies to shutter."

@klisterklister2367

7 күн бұрын

Sad day for embracer

@Sponsie1000

7 күн бұрын

I have no employees, and I must lay-off

EA: I've bought up and killed plenty of studios Embracer: Give me a minute......

Might be worth mentioning, Embracer didn't just screw the Video Game industry, they also owned Board Games companies as well. Like, they own Fantasy Flight Games and recently diversified themselves of their Star Wars titles, and the company that now owns them this month began ending support for a few of those long running games systems.

@samhobday1274

7 күн бұрын

yeah, a lot of the board game industry could be really screwed. Asmodee also owns Board Game Arena, which is by far the largest online board gaming site. That was already a huge amount of consolidation, with Fantasy Flight, Days of Wonder, Z-Man, Lookout and many others all under Asmodee/Embracer.

"Untalented, backstabbing, head treaders" is good, gotta remember that one.

Thank you Commander Stephanie Sterling

I think the CEO of embracer played monopoly once and decided that that was enough experience to run a buisiness with

@samhobday1274

7 күн бұрын

maybe that's why they bought Asmodee (joke slightly falls flat as Asmodee don't own Monopoly - that's Hasbro, but it is one of the largest board game publishers)

@Wiimeiser

7 күн бұрын

@@samhobday1274 That said, I think WB is trying to cripple Hasbro. There's plenty of evidence to suggest it.

If you gave these people housing insulation. They'd burn it for heat.

@dkevans

7 күн бұрын

Using rocket fuel to light the fuse.

You missed the bit in April of this year where Embracer split into multiple "different" companies, each with a different share of the remaining holdings, and one of them being a patsy saddled with the remaining debt.

Stephanie absolutely slayed in today's video. In terms of writing but also in looks.

@coobk373

8 күн бұрын

they always do

We trade one villain for another.

@Elwaves2925

8 күн бұрын

Hydra.

the scariest thing for an indie company is no longer paying the bills but that predator trying to buy them

@armelior4610

7 күн бұрын

the only difference being a couple of years before the inevitable mass laying off or the studio closing entirely, and probably much stricter NDAs to sign

I’m a huge fan of board games as well as video games. One of my favorite board game IPs is Ticket to Ride. I was incredibly dismayed to learn recently that its publisher, Days of Wonder, is also owned by Embracer Group. :(

Gawddamn, it's like the Mr. Incredible meme, just watching a bunch of dead names on a screen.

Bright and early comment for the Cassandra of video games 😊

Haven't wanted your vids in a fair while, you look a lot happier.

@jack-a-lopium

8 күн бұрын

This is happy? They need therapy.

@Feasco

8 күн бұрын

​@@jack-a-lopiumhappier about themselves, madder about the game industry you on the other hand need to learn to be a better person

@ToonPlays

8 күн бұрын

*watched

They used to be THQ Nordic? As in the publisher that was embroiled in that 8chan controversy? This part is news to me. Though, with such a generic name like Embracer, it always felt to me like there was something unsavoury about them. I really wondered why everyone else was looking at all of those purchases and seeing them as a good thing.

@jack-a-lopium

8 күн бұрын

No, they were a holding group. They weren't a development studio. JSS is lying to you to make you angry for financial gain... just like from the alt-right playbook. I mean, every alt-right grifter is also gay, so maybe you join the club whenever you go gay, I don't know.

@Feasco

8 күн бұрын

​@jack-a-lopium you mad

@jacksonteller3973

8 күн бұрын

@@jack-a-lopium no lying troll

@Damian_1989

7 күн бұрын

Surprised you didn't call him a natzee this time, jackson, since that's all you know about.

@jacksonteller3973

7 күн бұрын

@@Damian_1989 he is one tho troll, all you know about is lying about Jim fool

It reminds me of the Parmalat mess in the late 90's. It was already a pretty big food company, the owner kept expanding it, and also acquired a few TV channels, a football team and a Formula 1 team. The hero of our story ended up in jail for fraud.

Naomi Kleins "The Shock Doctrine" covers all this nicely.

the same thing is happening all over every industry... this is where Red Lobster and all the other chains went. This is where Toys R Us went. People running the american government are involved in acquisition companies... this is the future.

Seeing the “Gamer Identity” as college frat bros push in the early 2000s to the industry exposed as villains worthy of any game in their repertoire has been sobering.

Indie games are doing so well these bigger companies are taking the approach of, "If you can't beat them, buy them and shut them down."

The way you accurately describe how greedy and awful CEOs are is pure poetry.

@ChristopherHallett

7 күн бұрын

I read a study once that showed that yes, CEOs are psychopaths - the career path self-selects for sociopathy. You simply don't make it to the top if you consider other people worthy of anyone's time or respect.

Private Equity is a stain on the world.

@Roxor128

4 күн бұрын

It needs to be converted into Public Equity.

Man, I wanted to make video games when I was a kid (that didn’t work out) and it may be the biggest bullet I’ve dodged in my life.

@randomtinypotatocried

8 күн бұрын

I felt the same way with not ending up in the comics industry (really wanted to work for Dark Horse Comics growing up). It's still sad to see the shit going down

@MintyCoolness

15 сағат бұрын

yeah, no kidding :(

You would think with repetition those numbers wouldn't have the same impact. But I felt it each time.

I hope someone someday makes a compilation of every skeleton warriors joke Steph has ever made

I've watched this series for maybe 11 years now, and it's the first time I've seen the closed captions for Skeleton Warriors. 😹 Beautiful way to ensure no one is left out

I admit that 'Alone in the Dark' didn't blow me away, but I felt like it was a good start! They could have created a sequel, maybe even some new DLC to expand things. Seriously though. Screw Embracer Group.

44 Axed Studios, 80 Axed Games, 4,532 Axed Jobs SO FAR

These are the types of people who rule our country...

This was quite the speedrun: 44 Studios, 80 Cancelled Games, 4532 Layoffs, just 4 years. You'd THINK numbers like that would be hard to top, but who wants to bet we see some strong challengers before the decade is out?

We need to... rebrand Embracer Group to better fit their message and values. Perhaps 'Erasure Grope'? 'Defacer Goop'? 'Disgracer Creep'?

@CodecrafterArtemis

8 күн бұрын

Defacer Group meets Unicronic Arts meets Micro$oft. Perfect.

@gregoryvn3

8 күн бұрын

Molester Group

Here's another fun side effect of Embracer doing what it did - iconic video game character Lara Croft is now a playable character in Hero Wars. You know, the one with all the disgusting and misleadnig KZread ads and gameplay that's worse than Raid: Shadow Legends.

Embracer group with the most aptly named gaming series titles: Tomb Raider (Thieving) Deus Ex (Dystopian Future) Thief (Thieving… again) Nominative determinism at its finest.

All those news articles boasting of an industry net worth that dwarfed music and film combined... there was blood in the water... and along came the sharks. It was always going to be this way.

Why do studios still go public? Surely they've learned by now it's a one way ticket to oblivion?

@armelior4610

7 күн бұрын

my guess is staying afloat is really hard in this industry, what with hundreds of games coming out daily, unless you have big marketing. Larian (you know, the little title called Baldur's gate 3 ?) was on the brink before they Kickstarted Divinity original sin and that was 10 years ago, it's much worse now

The self-immolation of Embracer group, a contradiction within itself. Legit feel sorry for the folks laid off 😢

I worked for Embracer for 2 years - at Asmodee (their Board Game subsidiary group....thing) and it was just...there were so many baffling decisions coming down from the corporate and Embracer side of things, and we were under constant fear of layoffs. It was massively stressful and mismanaged as fuck.

Oooh, I just watched Dark City again last week. It's great.

@francis6775

8 күн бұрын

Poooor Mr Quick...

@Cyromantik

8 күн бұрын

That movie is a treasure, and like many treasures very nearly wasn't made.

@ZMannZilla

7 күн бұрын

Not a week goes by that I don't think about Dark City at least once.

Thank you. Thank God for Stephanie Sterling. ❤

Chant it with me, brethren: "80 games cancelled, 44 studios shutdowns, 4532 layoffs! 80 GAMES CANCELLED! 44 STUDIO SHUTDOWNS!! 4532 LAYOFFS!! 80 GAMES!! CANCELLED!! 44 STUDIOS! SHUTDOWN!! 4532 LAYOFFS!!"

Perfectly expressed. Thank you for not holding back on anything Jim. Corporations behave disgustingly and need to be called out in the strongest possible terms!

Greed sells, but who’s buying?

@SageWon-1aussie

8 күн бұрын

I did enjoy the MegaDebt graphic.

It's a genuine fucking miracle that they happened to hire people who actually gave a shit for the Tomb Raider remakes. Too bad for Gex or Soul Reaver though. Oh, or anyone who used to work there. That's pretty important as well.

@goranisacson2502

7 күн бұрын

Well Akshually... Square Enix kept Gex! Yeah. Out of all the IP to keep, they kept Gex. That's why we're getting a collection of the old games called the Gex Trilogy, believe it or not. Soul Reaver is still screwed though, they ended up sold in the merger.

Embracer didn't buy the companies to make money off them their plan was to buy up a bunch of companies bundle them together and sell them to Microsoft or EA for a fat profit. When interest rates were hiked that put the kibosh on that Way back in the day the same thing happened to one of the anime distributors. One of my favorite shows, I'm going to be an angel, got killed by it. Bunch of other shows did too. I don't even remember which company did it but they went around buying up all the licenses they could and spent so much money they didn't have the money to release any of the licenses. They were just angling for a buyout that never came

My Monday doesn't start until the boo of a theme song plays. Love you Stef and crew

80. GAME. CANCELLATIONS. 44. STUDIO. CLOSURES. 4532. LOST. JOBS.

Does anyone have a full list of the studios they've shut down? Not sure how long i'd be scrolling through google to get past the ocean of articles about only one or 2 of them (let alone the AI, ads, sponsors, etc.)

@NIRDIAN1

8 күн бұрын

Wikipedia has an article listing all the studio closures. (Called something like "Embracer Aqcuisitions of the 2020s" you can find it on the page for the company) It's a bit difficult to sift through as most of the names aren't well known. I wish there was a nice graph of cancelled projects and the closed studios working on them.

They do understand cause and effect very well. The cause is they have a lot of money. The effect is now they have more. That's the whole equation. There is no human element.

Another franchise that probably fell victim to this is "the Legacy of Kain". A franchise that seemed to actually have a chance get back to form. Something that had a lot of people quite excited after the desaster that was Nosgoth. There is still a chance, as Crystal Dynamics is still there, but I don't have a lot of hope in that regard.

Embracer has been ripping through the tabletop industry too.

@randomtinypotatocried

8 күн бұрын

And apparently the comics industry too

@banquetoftheleviathan1404

7 күн бұрын

The toy industry is already fucked so I guess I can't be hurt by them. Yay?

I would go as far as to say there is a cap on company values beyond which it is forced by law to never skin-steal other companies (it's not an acquisition, it's just hollowing those companies out and using their skin at that point), that there should be a limit on how many companies one company can buy in a year AND over it's lifetime, and a decade ban on stealing other companies following *ANY* layoff. And more importantly, that the entire C-Suite *MUST* face criminal charges should their subordinates do crime. And a ban on 'leveraged buyouts'... well, a reinstatement of the ban because it did used to be illegal. In short, make billionaires pay again.

Not just the awful shit they've been doing with restructures and layoffs, they also killed my favorite open-world game series in Saints Row. Can Steph create "Fuck Embracer" to go along with "Fuck Konami" as well?

13:06 The lack of a 'tee hee hee' at the end really threw me for a second there, but then again given Embracer's actions, fair enough.

Goddamn it! How often can my hopes for a Legacy of Kain revival be crushed?

I remember a mix of concern and excitement with Dark Horse and Asmodee's purchases. Concern due to the obvious, but I was actually excited to see what the people there would be able to do with licensed properties they didn't have to pay to license anymore, as some of their best work in past years have been on licensed properties (e.g. just with Star Wars, DH's comics runs like Knights of the Old Republic are legendary, and Asmodee subsidiary FFG's Star Wars X-Wing, Armada, Legion and SWRPG had a lot of devoted fans). Instead, Asmodee have been saddled with all the debt, now X-Wing and Armada are ending (writing's been on the wall there for a while, tbf, but I doubt the debt saddling helped), and apparently DH are still having issues. I'm aware this doesn't compare to studios outright being shuttered and mass layoffs, it's just both comics and tabletop games are still such niche industries that hang on a knife-edge (I wouldn't be surprised to see IDW going bankrupt this year) so these ripples will really be felt.

An episode like this really needed Jim/Stephanie to get a lectern to proclaim this companies' sins from on high. That is the one slightly lesser aspect of presentation here as compared to the classic episodes. I feel the random room background is not wholly fitting for the magnitude of assholelry to be pilloried and put on display here. Bring back the lectern and crab hands while you're at it, I say.

This is high-quality jimquisition. Good stuff, Steph!

As someone in the industry directly under embracer thank you for bringing awareness

I hate that people still do business with Saudi Arabia.

@CountCocofang

7 күн бұрын

How so? Some still change their profile picture to a rainbow flag one month a year and scold others for their opinions while taking blood money themselves. Can't ask for more.

I still remember videogames, it was nice.

Aaaah, I get it now. Embracer refers to the sweet embrace of death...

I recently asked what a company WAS according to CEOs. I think we have the answer now… they’re NFTs. You buy them for a price and sell them for a greater price and if you’re the last one holding one when it dips in price you shred it to flood the workplace with talent to make it cheaper to buy a share in people’s time on earth. OK, so the comparison comes apart at the end but this is where we are. The company could make video games, movies, comics, pharmaceuticals, bored apes… it doesn’t matter. And it’s all just bullshirt

Holy hell A Megadeth reference in a JSS video! My two worlds are colliding!

This is happening to Hasbro too

*Embrace, Extend, Extinguish*

"Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything tee hee hee." God i miss Yahtzee, but thank god for you, Steph.

@jemolk8945

6 күн бұрын

Yahtzee's still around and still doing his thing. He's just over on Second Wind now, along with all the other former Escapist people who walked away.