Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is Embracer’s first big win after dismal 2024
Embracer Group is thrilled with the success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 as it suddenly realises that good games sell.
Embracer Group is thrilled with the success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 as it suddenly realises that good games sell.
Whatever your feelings are on Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, the new medieval role-playing game sequel to the original 2018 game, it has undeniably been a success for Embracer Group, the Swedish monolith that owns developer Warhorse Studios and publisher Deep Silver.
The game launched last week for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC and not only did it receive positive reviews but it outperformed Embracer’s expectations by selling a million copies in just 24 hours and is reportedly on track to hit two million very soon.
It’s the first big win Embracer has had in a long time and apparently an important reminder to the company that if it wants its games to sell well, they need to be good.
‘The success of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a reminder of our core – to bring great products to the market,’ said Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors in the company’s latest earnings report.
‘High quality teams need to have the resources and the time to execute their visions,’ he added. ‘When you have right teams, this trust benefits everyone, including gamers, employees and shareholders.’
We’re admittedly no business savvy CEO, but this all sounds rather obvious to us. Although maybe Embracer did need a reminder, considering it hasn’t had the best 2025 fiscal year so far.
From April 2024 to December 2024, Embracer has seen a 22% drop in game sales across consoles, PC, and mobile devices. Total net sales for those nine months came to 16,984 million Swedish krona (about £1,257 million), which is significantly less than the 21,651 Swedish krona (about £1,603 million) it made during the same period in 2023.
2024 also continued to chart Embracer’s fall from grace after it spent years hoovering up any other studios it could get its hands on, including buying Crystal Dynamics and Eidos from Square Enix.
Just like with every other games company that grew too fast in recent years, Embracer soon found itself cancelling projects, shutting down studios, and laying off over a thousand employees as part of ‘restructuring’ efforts.
It also wound up selling off Borderlands studio Gearbox to Take-Two Interactive for $460 million (about £365 million at the time), which was a huge loss considering Embracer paid upwards of $1.3 billion (about £1.03 billion) for it in 2021.
This came not long after Embracer had sold Saber Interactive to a private company, though the two are apparently still working together on that Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic remake that’s been MIA since 2021.
Embracer sounds especially eager to ride the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 train for as long as it can since the game’s slated to receive updates and DLC over the next 12 months, ‘ensuring an engaging and continuously evolving experience for the community.’
Yeah, this is still supposed to be happening (Sony)Email [email protected], leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
ArrowMORE: More proof that a single flop can destroy a studio as Alone In The Dark dev shut down
ArrowMORE: Sony wants ‘nothing to do’ with Knights Of The Old Republic remake claims source
ArrowMORE: Games industry boss predicts the end of £70 games and a major new games drought
