Saber Interactive's CEO Matthew Karch has defended The Embracer Group's boss Lars Wingefors following the studio's departure from the company.
Saber Interactive's CEO Matthew Karch has defended The Embracer Group's boss Lars Wingefors following the studio's departure from the company
Embracer has been selling off some of its developers – including the now privately owned Saber - to recover funds from a failed deal worth billions as the gaming industry continues to financially struggle and Karch has backed Wingefors for making the difficult choices.
He told IGN: "It's very easy to look from the outside at a situation when you're not familiar with the people in this situation or what guides those people and to draw conclusions.
"You could state that a lot of the jobs that were lost were jobs that wouldn't have otherwise been created. Some of the studios that we're taking with us would never have been able to grow the way they've grown. No way. We've created a lot of jobs, and they may have, especially in this market downturn, been out of business in any event because capital has just dried up, not just at Embracer, but everywhere.
Karch, who is currently overseeing Saber's development of the long-awaited 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake', did concede that the Embracer boss was slow to react to the changing landscape of the gaming industry but emphasised that Wingefors made the right calls in letting studios go in order to save the company.
He said: "I think you can blame Lars for maybe being a little bit naive that this gravy train would just continue. But I think now you could admire them for making tough decisions and doing whatever they can to preserve as much of what they've built as they can in a fair and equitable way.
"I think some people saw those acquisitions and were annoyed by Embracer when they were acquiring.
"I remember a lot of negative comments about them gobbling everything up. And so now they're a little bit gleeful…which I don't think is entirely equitable.
"But give Lars a break or have somebody give him a break. Tell the world that I said they need to give this guy a break."