Semi-Russian Saber Interactive has gained independence from Embracer Group and is going to keep Ukrainian 4A Games

As we reported earlier, Embracer Group has decided to get rid of a troubled asset in the form of the American-Russian Saber Interactive. The company was sold for $247 million to itself.

With this sale, Embracer Group permanently exits all operations in Russia, while improving cash flow, reducing capital expenditures, net debt and future liabilities. The buyer of Saber Interactive is Beacon Interactive, a company controlled by Sabre Interactive co-founder Matthew Karch.

According to a statement on Embracer’s site, Saber Interactive reserves the option to acquire the Ukrainian-Maltese studio 4A Games and the Hungarian Zen Studios, which were previously part of its structure. Journalist Jason Schreyer confirmed that the company has already decided to exercise this option.

Interestingly, the long-term licensing and publishing rights to current and future PC and console Metro games belong to Plaion, which remains part of Embracer.

As a reminder, Saber Interactive is formally an American company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But we remember well that the company was founded in 2001 in St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg office is still actively working on Saber games. In addition, Saber Interactive includes the Russian studios Bytex (Saransk) and SmartPhone Labs (Veliky Novgorod), as well as the Belarusian Saber Interactive Belarus (Minsk).

Ukrainian 4A Games and Fractured Byte became part of Saber Interactive after the acquisition of Embracer Group in 2020 and 2021, respectively. Fractured Byte also remains with Saber.