Saber's Matther Karch: "Don't bet against Embracer"

03.04.2024 - 14:37 / gamesindustry.biz / Saber Interactive

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Embracer Group has become a cautionary tale for the games industry; the poster child of what happens when a business grows too big, too quickly.

But Saber Interactive founder Matthew Karch — previously on the leadership team at Embracer, and now head of Beacon Interactive, which purchased Saber and various studios from Embracer for $247 million last month — believes criticism of the company has been too harsh and that the group did a good job of minimising the cuts made in the past year.

"There was a long time when Lars [Wingefors, Embracer CEO] was kind of a wonder child," Karch tells GamesIndustry.biz. "He could do no wrong, he was on the cover of magazines and Lars is a pretty humble guy. It's not like he takes all of his money and spends it. Yes, he's bought a few things that people with wealth can buy but he's been very maligned – in Sweden in particular.

"First, he was maligned for actually being wealthy and then he was maligned for the fact that the Embracer shares haven't really held up over the past year. In fact, they dropped significantly and precipitously and I think it actually dropped more on a relative basis than almost anybody else primarily because it seems to be a company these days that everyone likes to pick on.

"We were getting congratulated left and right at GDC about leaving the evil Embracer. But these are the nicest people you've ever met"

"But in my mind, nobody has been guided by more of a sense of fairness and reasonableness than Lars. The process that we've had to go through to terminate studios has absolutely been... it's killed us. I say 'us' even though I'm no longer part of the company because I feel like… I mean, I still have shares, I still have close relationships and good friends, and obviously the best wishes that they succeed over there. But I would say Embracer tried harder than anybody to save as many jobs as it could."

Karch adds that the fact Embracer grew so big within just a few short years meant that it also had to act just as quickly when it came to staff reductions. He also argues that the layoffs "weren't any worse or more significant than you saw in any other situation" - although Embracer is one of a handful of games companies that has laid off more than 1,000 people, alongside the likes of Unity and Microsoft.

"Look at Gearbox. Gearbox just sold, right? The employees that were within that company remained in that company until after the announcement, right? Because Lars didn't want to let anybody go, he really wanted to keep everybody. So I think he gets a bad rap.

"We were getting congratulated left and right at GDC about leaving the evil Embracer. But these are the nicest people