Embracer Group Acquires Teardown Developer Tuxedo Labs

In a day of numerous acquisitions by Embracer Group including Limited Run Games, the IP rights to Lord Of The Rings, Tripwire Interactive, Singtrix, and more, the mega-corporation has also managed to land the developer of one of 2022’s most acclaimed and beloved indie titles – Teardown. That’s right, the next domino to fall is none other than Teardown‘s developer Tuxedo Labs. As a new part of Embracer, Tuxedo Labs will be folded into the Saber Interactive Operative Group.

Both Matthew Karch of Saber Interactive, and Tuxedo Labs founder Dennis Gustafsson commented on the new deal, Karch saying “Tuxedo Labs has created revolutionary technology that opens up vast possibilities for emergent gameplay and user-created content. Their hit title Teardown has the potential to become the standard-bearing platform for physics simulation in games. Many of us at Saber and our subsidiary 3D Realms have worked with Dennis since the mid-2000’s. We are super excited to welcome Dennis, their CEO Marcus Dawson, and the rest of the Tuxedo Labs team into the Embracer family.”

Meanwhile, Gustafsson reflected on the acquisition of the studio he formed, saying “This is a perfect fit for us because of our shared interests in physics-driven game design and Saber’s resources to help us achieve our long-term vision. We will now be able to rapidly expand and accelerate our plans for Teardown, including bringing it to new audiences, while simultaneously focusing on evolving voxel-based technology for our next generation of games.”

Founded in 2019 in Malmo, Sweden, the Tuxedo Labs team, led by Gustafsson, was only made up of six team members, each of who now represents the Embracer Group and Saber Interactive. Gustafsson’s knowledge of physics simulation and how it was applied in Teardown appears to have been one of the most attractive factors for the Embracer Group. Teardown itself entered a state of early access after blowing gamers way in 2020, before receiving numerous updates, which then culminated in its 1.0 release in April of 2022.

Speaking about the terms of the acquisition, and the fate of Dennis and his team post-transaction, the press release from Embracer Group stated “The parties have agreed not to disclose specific terms due to commercial reasons. The purchase price contains an upfront part and a long-term potential earn-out. The terms and conditions for the acquisition are in line with previous Embracer transactions. Founder Dennis Gustafsson is committed to Tuxedo Labs and the company will focus on growing in Malmo, Sweden. Post transaction business will remain as usual, with the team focused on expanding Teardown.”

The addition of Tuxedo Labs is just the latest step in Embracer’s gradual consumption of the game development landscape, landing several Square-Enix studios including Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and more earlier in the year.

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