Asmodee, the world’s second largest board game publisher, will be sold to the Embracer Group, a video game holding company known for its ownership of THQ Nordic and other game studios. https://embracer.com/release/embracer-group-intends-to-make-a-strategic-acquisition-of-leading-board-gaming-group-asmodee-that-would-form-the-ninth-operating-group/that it intended to purchase Asmodee from current owner PAI Partners for €2.75 billion, which converts to over $3 billion US dollars. The transaction would create Europe’s largest gaming group and would position Embracer as a major force in the board game industry. Per the regulatory announcement made by Embracer, the transaction would be completed next year and Asmodee’s management team would continue to operate with no immediate reorganization.
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Embracer Group is the holding company that owns THQ Nordic, Saber Interactive, Deep Silver, and Koch Media, as well as numerous smaller game studios that operate under one of its company’s umbrellas. Some of the company’s notable franchises include Darksiders, Dead Island, and Destroy All Humans.
Meanwhile, Asmodee owns multiple board game studios including Fantasy Flight Games, Atomic Mass Games, Z-Man Studios, CATAN Studios, and Days of Wonder. The company’s strategy in recent years was to acquire smaller game studios and integrate them into the company as semi-independent publishers, while adding their games to their portfolio. The company also owns the Board Game Arena software. Some of the many games published by Asmodee include CATAN, Ticket to Ride, X-Wing Miniatures Game, Marvel: Crisis Protocol, Marvel Champions: The Card Game, Arkham Horror, and Pandemic. Asmodee also holds the French rights to the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Asmodee has also licensed its various games for digital video games in recent years.
The announcement is interesting for a few reasons. Embracer specifically notes the cross-platform appeal of purchasing Asmodee, as they can adapt many of their video game franchises into board games. At the same time, Asmodee owns a deep well of IP that could be adapted into video game projects, either as straight adaptations or as the inspiration for video games. For instance, Cyberpunk 2077, one of last year’s biggest releases was a video game adaptation of the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG.
Assuming the sale goes through, this potentially represents a major disruption in the board game industry and will be one of the driving forces in the industry for months if not years to come.
