THQ Nordic parent company acquires Metro and Insurgency studios, and both are working on something new

(Image credit: Deep Silver)

Embracer Group, the parent company that owns THQ Nordic, has bought a bunch of new studios including 4A Games, developer of the Metro series, and New World Interactive, the studio behind the Insurgency games and Day of Infamy. Both studios have been placed under its Saber Interactive subsidiary, that studio having been bought by Embracer back in February.

With the news comes a few teases of upcoming games from both studios. Metro developer 4A is working on a "brand new AAA IP that leverages its decade of experience on developing the Metro series", while also teaming up with Saber Interactive for a new game featuring multiplayer. Despite the change in ownership, 4A Games and Metro publisher Deep Silver "will continue to explore the Metro franchise together with [Metro author] Dmitry Glukhovsky going forward", but with Embracer/Saber Interactive being a part of the process now too.

4A Games CEO Dean Sharpe provided this comment: "Embracer Group and Saber Interactive are the perfect partners for 4A Games and for our next phase of growth. Together we will continue to build on the Metro franchise and will focus on bringing a multiplayer experience to our fanbase. We look forward to building a new and even more ambitious AAA IP in the near future."

If I'm reading that right, it sounds like a multiplayer Metro could be on the table, but perhaps more exciting is all this talk of a new IP. I'm intrigued to see what a non-Metro game by 4A might look like.

New World Interactive, meanwhile, is "currently working on a new unannounced owned IP", and has teamed up with Saber for console ports of Insurgency: Sandstorm. The developer plans to expand under Embracer, with an expansion of its Calgary studio and the opening of a new studio in Montreal.

The Embracer Group has also acquired Misbits developer Pow Wow Entertainment, film and TV rights company Sola Media, DECA Games, Palindrome Interactive, Rare Earth Games and Vermila Studios.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.