Swedish Embracer Group is creating an archive with every video game ever made
“Something I’m very proud to be a part of is our efforts at Embracer Group to build a games archive. The project is led by Thomas Sunhede, my friend and co-author of the book about Swedish video games dev history,” tweeted Martin Lindell, an adviser at Embracer Group, on February 18th, 2021. A games industry pro since 1994, Lindell has written books about Nintendo in Sweden and the Swedish game development history. The Embracer Group, which owns a number of video game studios, including Gearbox Software, Volition, and 4A Games, is based in Karlstad, Sweden. Their motto is “We embrace great people, great companies and great ideas.” Sweden is a gaming powerhouse, as you will find out thanks to any bonus för Fastbet that you may want to use to explore the Scandinavian online potential.
The archive that Embracer Group is building is already well underway, with around 50,000 pieces, including “games, consoles, peripherals, and arcades,” many of which are described as extremely rare. CEO Lars Wingefors has already donated his own collection to form the foundation of the archive. The Group has much larger ambition, though. They started a campaign of acquisitions from private collectors in Europe that has been going on all 2020. Wingefors has revealed that the ambitious project “will take decades to complete,” but the Group will see it through no matter how long it takes.
They can certainly afford it. On the same day, Embracer Group published its financial report for Q3 October-December 2020, revealing that their operational EBIT increased 100% to SEK 603 Million. They are also adding new members to the Group, as they disclosed on February 4th: “We are proud to welcome more talents to our global group. Today we announced that Gearbox, Easy Brain Team, and Aspyr Media are all joining our family.” The acquisition of Borderlands developer Gearbox Software is a big merger, worth a staggering $1.3 billion. The powerful Swedish group currently has as many as 150 games in development, 70 of which are scheduled for completion by March 2022.
As for the future “archive of all games”, it could find a physical home near the Embracer Group Headquarters in Värmland, Sweden, and serve as a complete reference library for the benefit of the group. “It’s a physical collection, worth pointing out,” Martin Lindell has revealed. “For games preservation in general, digital-only releases will be a challenge to maintain. Personally, I hope there will be more collaboration on the topic. It’s nothing commercial; it’s an archive for the sake of preserving our heritage and video games history. ” Embracer will go further than this, though. They have plans to create “satellite exhibits” at the Group’s companies to illustrate their creative history. External traveling exhibits around the globe may also be part of the package.
Sweden has a strong culture of gaming and has become a major player. Just think of titles like Minecraft, Candy Crush Saga, and Battlefield. Swedish videogames are estimated to reach over a billion players worldwide.
No Comments