Funcom Owns Conan the Barbarian Now

Funcom this week announced that it has fully acquired Cabinet Group, which held a number of different intellectual properties like Conan the Barbarian and Mutant Year Zero. The company is set to merge all of the acquired IPs into the IP studio Heroic Signatures, and Funcom is working on some kind of video game featuring several characters from the worlds of Robert E. Howard.

Notably, Funcom previously worked with Cabinet Group for years to license Conan the Barbarian for several video games like Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures and Conan Exiles. As such, it is not terribly surprising that Funcom should acquire it. Even so, Cabinet Group previously licensed Conan the Barbarian, for example elsewhere with Marvel publishing comics and Netflix working on a series. From the way the press release announcing the acquisition reads, it seems like those deals will continue under new management.

"We are currently overseeing the development of an unannounced game which will combine many of the characters in the Robert E. Howard universe," said Funcom CEO Rui Casais as part of the announcement. "And if you combine Funcom's knowledge of games with Heroic Signatures' knowledge of the TV/entertainment, publishing, and licensing industries, it makes us perfectly placed to take this venture to the next level. It's exciting times ahead for us and for fans of the IPs."

"The entertainment industry is rapidly becoming more 'techified.' We've seen brilliant examples of how games have incorporated IPs in innovative ways to reach audience numbers that vastly surpass previous levels," said Fredrik Malmberg, co-founder and CEO of Cabinet Group, who will now be President of Heroic Signatures. "What Fortnite has done with The Avengers, for instance, or the impact a live in-game concert can have on awareness. We are looking forward to sitting down with other entertainment companies who share our vision and wish to take part in the exciting journey we have ahead."

As noted above, Funcom currently has an unannounced project involving the acquired IPs in development. You can check out all of our previous coverage of Funcom right here.

What do you think about Funcom's full acquisition of Cabinet Group and intellectual properties like Conan the Barbarian, Mutant Year Zero, and more? Are you excited to see what Funcom ends up doing with the various properties? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!