The inside story of Saber, Embracer and a scuttled Saudi deal that changed everything

Part 3 of my private jet interview with Saber CEO Matt Karch, covering what went wrong at Embracer--gaming's once-voracious conglomerate--why he's hopeful for the future, plus Space Marine too

Warhammer 40K: Space Marine II. Screenshot: Saber Interactive, Focus Entertainment

We were over Illinois or thereabouts when Matt Karch, CEO of Saber Interactive, began talking to me about the company’s brief but dramatic phase as a part of The Embracer Group. That’s the conglomerate that bought up dozens of game companies in the late 2010s and early 2020s but, as its fortunes turned in the last two years, cut its headcount by thousands.

We were in Karch’s private jet, one he’d bought in 2022 so that he and his team could make non-stop flights from the U.S. to Embracer HQ in Sweden.

Note: This is the third and final part of my airborne interview with Karch. It was conducted in mid-December 2024. Prior reading: Part 1; Part 2

Karch and I hit some other topics during this final leg of our journey, including Russia and (briefly) Star Wars, but Embracer— the acquisition, the failed Saudi deal, the split—took up most of our time flying over the eastern time zone.

Karch wanted to tell me how things went with Saber and Embracer. He was going to share some honest, if tough love, he said. He also kept mentioning a couple of things.

• One was that he really likes Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors. “I don't really want to portray Embracer in a bad light here,” Karch said. “They made mistakes. Lars is a very, very trusting person. He's a good person.”

• The other: the pilot of the plane we were flying in, Karch said, used to be Lars’ pilot.