Embracer Group AB, one of Europe’s largest games companies, has accelerated its acquisition pace after securing deals for six companies, including intellectual property rights for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit . “Gaming is the best way to monetize IP addresses over the long term, but not necessarily the most efficient way to create new IP addresses,” Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said in an interview following of the group’s report on the second quarter.

CEO says acquisition of Middle-earth Enterprises “allows many companies in the group to work on IPs we control for the long term” and will now join Embracer’s existing catalog of over 800 owned IPs and controlled.

Game companies such as Embracer are increasingly focusing on intellectual property as a way to generate sales from the massive appeal of characters and stories that have already attracted large audiences. Embracer’s intellectual property of JRR Tolkien’s famous trilogy also contains the film rights, giving them a financial stake in upcoming projects such as the Amazon series The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power.

Karlstad-based Embracer, which is considered a so-called serial acquirer due to an aggressive growth strategy, also announced the creation of its 11th operating group, Freemode, where many of the new acquisitions will be housed. Freemode’s business “is more niche” and will focus on retro gaming, Wingefors said, pointing to the new acquisition of Limited Run Games – the “first nerd retro game publisher” in the market.

Embracer shares fell 7% in early trading after the report was released, but were listed down 1.8% at 2:30 p.m. Stockholm time / 6:00 p.m. IST. Wingefors attributes the slow quarter to the company having “no significant new releases” compared to the same period a year ago. However, the CEO says he has high expectations for the rest of 2022 with “a good number of titles to come”.

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