Destroy All Humans! remake developer Black Forest Games has left THQ Nordic through a management buyout, ending nine years inside Embracer Group.
The German studio announced the move on November 11th alongside the launch of Third Signal, a new independent group of game studios making premium games for PC and console. Black Forest Games is the group's founding member, and its management team now co-owns Third Signal with Third Signal Ventures. According to the release, THQ Nordic and Black Forest Games will keep working together on game development tasks.
"Some of the best games of the last decade came from teams of fifty, not five hundred," said Andreas Tobler, founder and CEO of Third Signal. "Black Forest Games is one of them, and the right studio to launch Third Signal." Tobler said the group wants to give teams "the independence, resources and creative freedom" to make their own games.
A new chapter in Offenburg
Founded in 2012 and based in Offenburg, Germany, Black Forest Games is known for Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, Fade to Silence and the remakes of Destroy All Humans! and Destroy All Humans! 2. THQ Nordic, a publisher owned by Swedish holding company Embracer Group, bought the studio in 2017. Black Forest Games will keep developing and publishing games under its own label.
"We are grateful to THQ Nordic and Embracer for nine good years and the games we made together," said Adrian Goersch, who runs the studio with Andreas Speer. "Now, we're excited to shape our own future as owners again." Speer added that there are "lots of opportunities for lean, experienced teams."
Goersch told German trade site GamesWirtschaft that the buyout had been in the works for some time because Embracer's strategy no longer suited the studio. The team now numbers around 50 people, down from more than 110 at its peak, and is working on a new project. No financial terms were shared.
