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Having sprung up from THQ Nordic in 2019, when the company announced its plans for gaming studio acquisitions over the coming years, Embracer Group made strides in establishing itself as a key player in the industry. Though the company now owns many contemporary IPs and franchises, its first steps were in acquiring classic franchises such as Destroy All Humans and Red Faction.
Of course, the umbrella company of THQ Nordic and Koch Media put its new properties to work over the last couple of years, with various remasters and re-releases nudging them back into relevancy. While Embracer may have used Steam to publish and market its games up until now, a recent trademark suggests that the publisher has got its sights set a bit higher still, after all.
Now that the Embracer Group owns a substantial number of companies that specialize in gaming, it seems like the publisher may have reached a critical point where it might launch its own dedicated gaming launcher. Trademarked as "Game Legends," this new service is described as an online retail store that sells video games, gaming merchandise, and even computer hardware, according to the official listing. Everything seems to point to the idea that Embracer might be leaning more heavily on its classic IPs in the near future.
Underlining this same idea is the fact that Embracer is creating a classic games archive to "preserve gaming history" by gathering virtually everything relating to its own IPs in one place. David Boström, the new CEO of the Embracer Games Archive, said that the publisher wishes to safeguard and celebrate the heritage of classic games. It's not a big stretch to imagine that the as-of-yet unannounced Game Legends store would tie into this endeavor as well.
Embracer has plans to acquire more gaming companies in the near and far future, and judging by its recent acquisitions, the company will only be getting increasingly more ubiquitous in the gaming industry as time goes on. It could very well be the case that Embracer feels it could stop relying on Steam and launch a fully-fledged competitor to host its games in the future, though it wouldn't be without precedent for the two to work in tandem, either.
Whatever the case may be, Embracer currently has 150 games in active development, and the company may have decided to leverage its immense production capabilities to carve out a new section of the gaming marketplace for itself. At this time, the focus seems to be squarely on classic gaming experiences, though an official announcement with more details should be coming in the near future.