Oh man guys you have got to read this PC Gamer piece — it's genuinely one of those stories where someone stepped back and took stock after the chaos had settled down enough for them to see what's actually holding together, because three years ago Embracer Group absolutely EXPLODED in spectacular fashion: we're talking $2 BILLION that just vanished into acquisitions they overpaid for (and then quietly walked away from), studio closures happening faster than anyone could update their Twitter feed — Coffee Stain Studios was particularly painful to watch as they went under months after being acquired at a massive premium, and the cancellation list got so long people stopped keeping track. What I love about this story is that it's not just someone repeating corporate talking points; their new CEO actually gets what happened in such vivid detail: the acquisition binge had grown out of control to the point where they were swallowing studios whole only to fold them into other divisions within months, developers lost morale because projects got cancelled en masse while management kept saying "trust us," and now that trust really does seem to be rebuilding. And honestly? I find this incredibly exciting for all of us who have been following acquisition-heavy publishers through the post-pandemic squeeze — when a company with Embracer's scale finally figures out how to not throw so much money at its own acquisitions, it creates room for ALL the smaller studios that might otherwise get gobbled up and dissolved. The real question isn't just whether their financials look better (they're improving but still heavy on debt), it's whether they've actually changed their behavior — no more buying big names with inflated valuations only to quietly close them down, yes letting development teams breathe again, maybe a little patience in how quickly things get integrated. Now the market is watching closely for what comes next: if the pipeline of upcoming releases hits its marks and we start seeing actual profitable games rolling out instead of just restructuring announcements every quarter, then this optimism might be genuine recovery rather than corporate PR trying to sell us another story about growth ahead. Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/3-years-after-a-usd2-billion-implosion-studio-closures-and-cancellations-embracers-new-ceo-hopes-trust-is-improving/