Thunderclap in the small world of board games. The French group Asmodee, one of the leaders in the sector, falls into the hands of the Swedish video game publisher Embracer.
Asmodee, headquartered in Paris, quickly rose to the top of the board game market. In recent years, the company has acquired many designers, such as Catan Studio (Catan), Z-Man Games (Pandemic), Fantasy Flight Games (Descent: Legends of the Dark) or even Days of Wonder (The Adventurers of the Rail). A heavyweight therefore, become world number 2 in the sector.
Reconciliation between video games and board games
In 2018, the PAI Partners fund acquired Asmodee, then owned by Eurazeo, for 1.2 billion euros. Three years later, it is the tumble with this sale to 3 billion euros! PAI Partners also becomes one of the minority shareholders of the new owner, Embracer.
Embracer is a conglomerate that owns several top-notch video game studios, including THQ Nordic (Darksiders), Deep Silver (Saints row), Coffee Stain (Valheim), Gearbox Entertainment (Borderlands) and Saber Interactive (Space Marine 2). In short, again a heavyweight in his field even if we did not expect the Swedish group in board games.
This acquisition will undoubtedly accelerate the synergies between video games and board games, the latter enjoying growing success in recent years. As for Asmodee, the management team remains in place and no reorganization is planned following the transaction.
