The Embracer Group is a significant gaming company that is still somewhat under the radar in comparison to other major brands. Previously known as THQ Nordic and operating out of Sweden, it's become the parent organisation for a number of major gaming companies - familiar names that are part of the group include Saber Interactive, Gearbox and Aspyr. It made waves recently by acquiring Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montréal and Eidos-Montréal from Square Enix.
It's a significant player in the industry, then, but has recently earned attention for another project - Embracer Games Archive. It seems like an example of a company using its significant resources to pick up a baton normally held my volunteers and non-profit organisations, with a mission to acquire, preserve and share gaming history and culture.
Imagine a place where all physical video games, consoles and accessories are gathered at the same place. And think about how much that could mean for games' culture and enabling video games research. This journey has just been started and we are at an early stage. But already now, we have a large collection to take care of at the Embracer Games Archive’s premises in Karlstad, Sweden. A team of experts has been recruited and will start building the foundation for the archive. At Embracer Games Archive, we believe that games carry a heritage worth celebrating and safeguarding for the future. Our goal is clear – We want to archive and save as much of the video games industry as possible.
The official website states that the archive already has around 50,000 games, systems and accessories, with a staffed team including an archivist and archive assistant. It's aiming to start work on a database of the collection this year, before opening up for collaborations with museums and researchers. The 'long term ambition' is to have public exhibitions locally and around the world.
With game preservation being a hot-button topic, particularly as original hardware ages and the digital age brings a new range of challenges, this seems like a very positive initiative. It's certainly something to follow closely in the coming years.
[source embracer.com, via pcgamer.com, eurogamer.net]
Comments 32
Not sure I am all that bothered, would rather have some new games rather than always looking back, I mean these games were all awesome in their day.... but things move on.
Glad to see this is taking place. As well as being part of gaming’s history, they also act as reminders of what influenced video games today as well as provide lessons of both the good and the bad (although some of those lessons continue to be ignored).
That and personally I just feel games of past generations were generally better than most of today’s offerings. Purer, less bloated, less interference from publishers, etc.
@johnvboy Not sure it's about not making new games; more just preserving the old so that future generations can experience the roots of gaming. Like museums and galleries but for games.
Imagine a place where all physical video games, consoles and accessories are gathered at the same place
That's my ultimate goal, by buying as many games and consoles as I can I am preserving gaming for future generations......... that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.
😜
In all seriousness it's good to see something is being done though.
Good to see and welcome to my man cave where I have games and consoles older than my Grandchildren (the joke is they prefer playing wii bowling and wii u Mario Kart)!! Lets hope we see many more classic games being developed going forward rather than the unfinished and pay to play sh*t that we see too much of these days!!
Worth noticing is also that Embracer now owns BOTH the Duke Nukem Franchise and the 3D Realms brand. ^^
Wait, you mean THQ Nordic isn't the name of the company anymore? Guess I'd better rename one of my Switch folders...
It's crazy to see how far the company has come. I certainly wouldn't have imagined this from THQ when they went bankrupt around the early 2010's, but here we are. Just goes to show that acquisitions can be exciting when in the right hands. These seem to be folks with a clear mission, and I look forward to see what they do in the future.
I always loved THQ's old, licensed work using Nickelodeon properties. I don't necessarily expect that to come from this, but it'd be cool to see some of that ported to Switch--NickToons Unite, the Fairly OddParents games, the SpongeBob Movie Game, etc. I really enjoyed Rehydrated and hope we hear more on Cosmic Shake during "E3" season.
Nickelodeon stuff aside, I'm holding them to their promise to remake and re-release franchises like Tomb Raider. I've never really played them, but Lara Croft is an icon. My ex was super into it, so I know she would be thrilled. I would definitely pick them up as I feel like I owe it to myself as a gamer to give them a chance. I just hope they fix the tank controls from the PS1 games.
Just the other day, I picked up Legend of Kay: Anniversary Edition. I've been eyeballing it ever since it came to Wii U back in like 2016 or something. I finally bought it on Switch; I'm at the end of the game, and I've quite enjoyed it. I don't think THQ made it, but it and Sphynx (which Nitro Rad has a video on) are a couple PS2-era 3D platformers that would have been lost to time if not picked up by them. Not a lot of studios do 3D platformers anymore, so I'm thankful for companies like THQ for their preservation of the genre.
Kay seems to have pretty mediocre to downright bad reviews across the board, but while it definitely has its rough edges--there were points where I wanted to pull my hair out in frustration at the baffling design choices--it's a very ambitious project. The game is significantly longer than I would have anticipated. The platforming is mostly really fun, the environments are interesting, the music is shockingly stellar, and I even found myself invested in the world-building and laughing at a few of the jokes. If you don't look at the era of B-grade platformers like Ty the Tasmanian Tiger with rose-tinted glasses like I do, the game might not do much for you. But I got it on sale for 10 bucks and would say my expectations were exceeded.
I've also never played a Destroy All Humans game, but they're pumping out those remakes incredibly quickly, so you have to give them props. I would like to try them someday. So yeah--I have nothing but positive things to say about THQ Nordic or Embracer or whoever they are now. I think they're a company more gamers need to keep their eyes on.
Is this their spin on justifying buying up every IP imaginable? I ain't buying it, neither should you.
Imagine if someone owns all the games...
Ker-ching.
@tanaka2687,
These games will never die, emulation will see to that, of course more obscure titles will bite the dust, but the main ones will always be there.
Nintendo's online service is a great idea imho...
@Not_Soos this comment gave me life!!! I have loved THQNordic's commitment to Switch titles, and the Darksiders series is my very favorite! Sphinx (a game I also played because of that NitroRad video lol) was a game I was not familiar with in it's time but feel that it aged phenomenally!
I hope we get more from Embracer group going forward, but no one has treated Switch owners as well as THQNordic has
Just like @GrailUK says, look how much they would be worth if they held all the games!!
And it's reported like this is a good thing, I really don't believe the naivety that a plc will do the right thing.
@Donutsavant I still need to go back and finish Sphynx, actually. At this point, it's been so long I should probably just start a new file. I have no idea where I left off, lol. Playing through Kay and being pleasantly surprised with it has really given me incentive to go back, but I also need to pick up Kao the Kangaroo. There's just too many great 3D platformers on Switch! I forgot to mention I also bought De Blob as part of the same THQ sale, so I still have to finish that one as well. I'm quite enjoying it so far, it gives me strong Katamari Damacy vibes, in a way.
@Not_Soos I love both of the De Blob games!!! Some pieces are a little messy, but they are beautiful and have such a poignant story about revolution and revolutionary power. Also the music is banging
I wish you luck on Kao! I'm waiting for my physical copy from Europe but I am pumped (also eagerly awaiting the Cosmic Shake!)
Not_Soos wrote:
Yes, and no. There were two companies named THQ Nordic before. THQ Nordic GmbH, which is still named THQ Nordic, and its parent company THQ Nordic AB, which renamed itself to Embracer Group.
Not_Soos wrote:
Just in case you (or anyone else that might be reading) were unaware, the THQ that went bankrupt has nothing to do with today's THQ Nordic or Embracer Group. From wikipedia:
@Donutsavant I somewhat regret not getting De Blob 2 as it was also on sale, but I have way too many games to play through right now anyways, haha. They seem to go on sale pretty regularly, so hopefully by the next one I'll have already beaten it and Kao...But by then Mario Strikers will probably be out as well as the Cuphead DLC, Sonic Origins, Klonoa, Fall Guys, the second wave of Mario Kart 8 DLC...GAH, IT'S TOO MUCH!
@johnvboy
I think its good to sometimes look back there just should be no extremes. If you look too much into the past its unhealthy as well as if you never look into the past. As always in life, something inbetween is the right thing. I think this archieve is awesome to be honest
@AlternateRT Thanks for sharing. So, are none of the former THQ staff currently employed there today and it's all new people? Or is it the same talent, just new management? I'm honestly more interested to know how you embedded my quote into your reply, lol.
All that I know is I'm gonna make sure that when my game is finished, 15 years from the date that it's released we plan on releasing it for free with the source code to everybody in the world because we are not greedy and we're going to prove it. Currently everybody working on the project who has majority agrees with us. I guess somebody has to step forward and do something good for the community it sucks that it's gonna be like 20 years away but it is what it is.
@jojobar,
Nostalgia is a powerful drug, and I remember playing games like the SNES Star Fox for the first time when they were cutting edge, just a little jaded with them over time.
@Not_Soos Nope. Afaik, none of the former THQ staff is employed by either THQ Nordic or Embracer Group; mind you, the former is a publishing company based in Austria, and the latter is a holding company based in Sweden.
When it comes to developers, I think there are a few that are still employed by them, be it as direct subsidiaries, or just as a their publisher.
Not_Soos wrote:
You can embed a quote with (quote=USERNAME)Quote goes here(/quote) (replace the parentheses with [ and ] instead)
Great buy Little Samson and re-release it.
@johnvboy Nope, even bad games like Superman 64 and Atari E.T. need to be preserved for future generations.
@johnvboy People look back to remember, not to play. This company is taking a step towards archiving for cultural aspects, which goes far beyond the notion of simply keeping a game for the sake of playing it. If you look through the lens of a gamer, then sure you’ll have this limited scope in terms of outlook. What is a gamer going to do with 50,000 games? Play 4 of them and hope for something new on the horizon.
But what if all the people that participated in the creation of said game had a place to finally be honored and acknowledged beyond a credits reel? When you look at the thousands of faceless developers over the decades, you start to wonder not just how they made their games, but why?
This is a small part of the culture that archivists and historians seek to preserve. We don’t look back at and study Rome so that we can copy their way of living. We study history so that we can wonder about the people and why they may have made their choices, so that we can see what we may learn from them.
Games in the 1980’s were made with an entirely different mindset than games in the 2020’s. For a developer, having an accessible historical archive could be a goldmine.
NINJA APPROVED
@BloodNinja, victordamazio
I guess it's no different to other art forms and media, movies get quite extensive restoration etc, although not all movies, some of the more obscure and less popular movies will be forgotten about eventually.
@Pod ohhh that’s nice…
Reading this literally gave me goosebumps. Such an awesome project! (that in no way devalues the work, worth and importance of the emulation community, I want to emphasize)
😂John Hancock of 'MetalJesusCrew' has already beaten them to it...
This is a good thing they are doing, more gaming companies all over the world should try it.
Does this mean Gex is going widescreen bigger than Harvey Davidson?!
Ambitious to say the least, but hopefully they are able to make headway in this gray area the others have already started to muddy up. We'll see how far they go and the directions they take.
@jrt87 Yes, people keep talking about how digital distribution sucks, because there's no way to preserve your games into the future, but physical media is not perfect either.
Piracy is the only way to actually preserve videogames for the future.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...