One of Europe’s fastest-growing video game companies is even bigger today. Embracer, which is the parent of publisher THQ Nordic, acquired World War Z developer Saber Interactive in a $525 million deal today. This puts Saber’s staff of nearly 600 under the Embracer umbrella. But the studio is also bringing along an existing deal with Focus Home Interactive to develop the off-road hauling simulator SnowRunner. And Saber has confirmed to GamesBeat that it will continue work on that game as planned.
Yesterday, February 18, Focus Home and Saber announced SnowRunner is launching April 28 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. SnowRunner is the followup to the cult hit Spintires. Saber worked on the updated version of that game that launched in 2017 under the name Spintires: MudRunner.
Focus and Saber then revealed plans to do a full sequel in August 2018. That turned into Snowrunner, which aims to expand on all of the original’s terrain-deformation action.
Now, Embracer owns Saber Interactive.
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The new ownership is not going to disrupt SnowRunner production, though. Saber will see the game through to release. The studio also confirmed that it will support the game in an ongoing capacity after its April 28 debut as well.
“Saber has been on our radar for a very long time because of their deep history of consistently high-quality work,” Embracer chief executive Lars Wingefors said in a statement.
It’s easy to see why the studio went for such a high price. Its $525 million value is more than double the $229 million Sony paid for Marvel’s Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games. Saber has a huge crew of developers that can jump in and work on existing properties. It has done that with Spintires. It also pulled off the seemingly impossible Witcher 3 port for Switch.
