Beamdog, the Canadian studio and publisher responsible for modern gates of the Baldur’s Gate games, will be acquired by Aspyr Media, the latter has announced. Aspyr is a Texas-based developer and publisher that focuses primarily on ports, but it is part of the fast-growing Embracer Group. The latter has completed 62 acquisitions since the start of 2020 worth about $ 8.1 billion according to Financial Times.
It’s a really subsidiary salad over there. Aspyr is a subsidiary of Saber Interactive, which is itself a subsidiary of the giant Embracer Group, which has over 10 direct subsidiaries (the subsidiaries’ subsidiaries not included!). These include Gearbox, Koch Media, THQ Nordic and Dark Horse Media. Suffice it to say that Beamdog will soon belong to a very, very large company with a market value of $ 9.9 billion.
The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval, but once the process is complete, Beamdog will operate as an “independent studio” in Aspyr. Aspyr will announce Beamdog’s upcoming MythForce when it launches in early access next week, but it sounds like Beamdog could also be tasked with getting more older projects. In his statement, Aspyr’s CEO, Ted Staloch, said that “we look forward to seeing them realize their ambitions with MythForce while maximizing the long-term potential of an incredible archive of classic games.”
Beamdog has the experience after releasing modern improved versions of two Baldur’s Gate games, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights and more. That experience is further enhanced by the fact that BioWare’s co-founder Trent Oster was also a co-founder of Beamdog.
Embracer Group was originally Nordic Games, which has existed since the 90s. It did not become a major concern in video games until the 2000s, but in 2011 it became a kind of empire, with its adoption of the THQ brand. The holding company renamed the Embracer Group in 2019.