Gameitall 
Embracer Group – the Sweden-based parent company that includes development and publishing studios THQ Nordic, Gearbox Software, Saber Interactive, Knoch Media, Deep Silver, and Coffee Stain Studios – has added another giant to their list of companies, Dark Horse Comics.
The acquisition comes a week after its planned buyout of tabletop game giant Asmodee. The group mentioned in a press release that the acquisition of Dark Horse comics adds a library of more than 300 intellectual properties and “strengthens its transmedia capabilities by adding expertise in content development, comics publishing, and film & TV production.”
“Additionally, there is untapped potential in creating games based on Dark Horse IP and substantial opportunity for synergies within the Embracer group, both within the Dark Horse Comics and Dark Horse Entertainment,” Embracer Group said in a statement.
Dark Horse is the third-largest comics publisher in the U.S., with company-owned IP’s such as Time Cop and The Mask, as well as licensed work including Star Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Critical Role, to its creator-owned IP’s such as Hellboy, Sin City and The Umbrella Academy.
Dark Horse also includes a TV and Film production company under Dark Horse Entertainment and a collectible retailer Things From Another World. According to the Embracer group, Dark Horse has more than 40 entertainment projects in development at Netflix, Amazon, Syfy, Sony, MGM, Universal, and Warner Media.
Embracer Group also announced 4 other companies that they have acquired as well, including:
Perfect World Entertainment – publishers of MMO’s Neverwinter and Star Trek Online.
DIGIC – Animation studio responsible for commercial trailers and cinematics.
Shiver Entertainment – a game co-developer that contributed to series like Mortal Kombat and Scribblenauts.
Spotfilm Networx – an advertising-based video on demand channel network.
In terms of holding companies snatching up publishers and developers, Embracer so far has been one of the better ones to keep an eye out for. Back in 2013, the company acquired most of the THQ log of IPs as the publisher went bankrupt, bringing the defunct brand back to life and some classic IPs including the Destroy All Humans series, Darksiders and more back. It’ll be interesting to see what the Dark Horse properties will give us in the future.
