Embracer CEO: 'I'm Sure I Deserve a Lot of Criticism' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 23 April 2024 / 1,932 Views
Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors following the announcement it would split into three standalone companies spoke with GamesIndustry about the backlash the company has been facing as it has been laying off employees, closing studios, and cancelling games.
"It's been painful," said Wingefors. "But I still believe in what we do, I believe in my teams and the vision we set out. I also believe the public markets, if we do it right, are a fantastic place to finance your business and tap into both investors and the debt market.
"But you need to execute well. If you do, it could be a fantastic platform to enable growth and to really have a competitive edge."
He added, "As a leader and an owner, sometimes you need to take the blame and you need to be humble about if you've made mistakes and if you could have done something differently.
"I'm sure I deserve a lot of criticism, but I don't think my team or companies deserve all the criticism. I could take a lot of that blame myself. But ultimately I need to believe in the mission we set out and that is still valid, and we are now enabling that by doing this [new] structure.
"I still feel I have the trust from many or all of my key entrepreneurs and CEOs that have joined the group. It's been difficult, but I think they all believed in the mission of Embracer. They also understand that the world has changed, we need to change. It's painful.
"We can't make all the games we wanted to make three years ago, but we need to adapt to it. We will still make games, we still have one of the biggest, if not the biggest, pipeline of games in the industry. And we have great plans over the coming years or decades."
Wingefors was asked about what mistakes he made and he said it was a "long list" of things he and Embracer could have done differently.
"In every given moment, you are making decisions you believe are right," he said. "When we were at the peak of 2020, 2021, we made all those decisions to acquire or organically set up or invest… and everyone was backing that. I firmly believed in that. The outcome, because it takes a number of years to make games, is different and it's painful and we need to adapt to it.
"We have been trying to safeguard as many jobs as possible. We've been trying to find new homes for teams and people... It's easy to look back in hindsight on things."
Embracer Group did end up selling subsidiaries Saber Interactive and The Gearbox Entertainment Company.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
