A statement by Embracer Group CEO Phil Rogers noted that the major reason for this deal was so that the company could improve its cash flow while still hanging on to its main priorities of maintaining core IPs.

“This transaction supports our key priorities by strengthening our focus on strategic assets and core IPs in Embracer while improving profitability and free cash flow,” said Rogers. “The deal also allows online multiplayer game Fellowship, developed by a talented external team in Stockholm, to find a great home within Coffee Stain Group. I would like to thank the teams at Arc and Cryptic for their hard work over the past four years and wish them all the best as we are confident they will thrive and develop in the years ahead.”

The new owner of Arc Games – Project Golden Arc – is comprised of the company’s own management team. Among the games it has published are Remnant: From The Ashes and Remnant 2, Torchlight, Hyper Light Breaker, and most recently, Fellowship. Cryptic Studios has also worked with Arc Games in the past since it has worked on the Arc Games-published MMORPGs Star Trek Online and Neverwinter.

While the long-term fates of all of these games are currently unknown, one of the few titles to which Embracer Group is holding on to the rights for – Fellowship – will continue its development by studio Chief Rebel. The title, released as an Early Access game on Steam back in October, will see continued development under the stewardship of the studio, with its core development team numbering in at around 35 employees.

Embracer Group had announced that it would be spinning off Coffee Stain Group back in May. As a result of this spin-off, Embracer Group will see its name changed to Fellowship Entertainment. The spun off Coffee Stain Group will take with it 250 employees, along with a host of studios, including Tuxedo Labs, Ghost Ship, and Amplifier Game Investment. The spun-off company will also take quite a few IPs with it, including Deep Rock Galactic, Goat Simulator, and Satisfactory, among others.

Once Embracer Group officially turns into Fellowship Entertainment, the company plans on transforming its business into one that can handle game development and publishing, as well as the development of new IPs that can then be spun off into transmedia properties like merchandise, comics and film. The company will retain ownership of companies like 4A Games, Aspyr Media, Crystal Dynamics, Dambuster Studios, and Deca Games, among many others. In the meantime, also check out the company having announced earlier this year that co-founder Lars Wingefors was stepping down as CEO.

Before we move ahead, do keep in mind that calling a game AA or AAA isn’t a measure of its popularity or quality so much as it is a measure of the scope of its production and its development budget, which means we might also talk about AA experiences made by companies that usually operate in the AAA sphere. With that out of the way, let’s dive right in.

DISCO ELYSIUM

You could call Disco Elysium a CRPG, and on paper, technically, you would be correct, but that would also be an incredibly reductive way to describe this masterpiece. From its surreal setting to its heavily flavoured and thematically dense writing, from its complete lack of combat to how bizarrely yet ingeniously it uses its RPG mechanics in conjunction with its storytelling, Disco Elysium is a singular game that’s unlike anything else out there.

By comparison, Remnant: From the Ashes reached 48,289 peak concurrent players about four years ago. The reason for the jump is obvious, as the first game was relatively unknown when it launched in August 2019. Word of mouth spread, however, and it sold over three million units by December 2021. Of course, the sequel having more marketing didn’t hurt either.

Remnant 2 is available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC – check out our review here. Gunfire Games is working on fixes and performance improvements and is also looking into adjusting respec costs while providing more resources from chests. Stay tuned for further updates in the meantime.

Ward 13 Changes

In Remnant: From the Ashes, the Root has been running amuck for a while and is responsible for the world’s ruined state. Resources like bullets and Iron are rare, and it’s incredibly unsafe. Ward 13, one of the last bastions of humanity and your main base, is quite limited. After the Subject 2923 DLC, the Root is defeated but not gone from Earth.

Remnant 2 picks up several decades later, and Ward 13 has expanded, with more of it situated outside. There’s been a relative amount of peace, but the Root still has some influence outside its walls. However, as recent trailers have shown, it’s not long before players have to go hopping to other worlds via the World Stone yet again.

Yaesha Revisited

Fans will recognize another location from the first game – Yaesha, a world full of greenery ruled by the Pan. The Pan are a race of warriors who are incredibly hostile to others, which includes the Root, which begins its assault here. Unfortunately, the Pan aren’t very successful in stopping the Root. In Remnant 2, players return to Yaesha, and it’s pretty much overrun by the Root, resulting in new enemies to fight and numerous environment changes. What other secrets await remains to be seen, but it’s more dangerous than ever to explore.

New Locations

Of course, Remnant 2 also has some locations that are brand new to the franchise. The first is N’Erud, a massive space-faring construct created by the Drzyr to act as a second home. Unfortunately, after passing through a supermassive black hole to discover the universe’s secrets, the Drzyr are changed into terrifying ghost-like entities. Those aren’t the only threats that await as drones and security robots, and strange alien creatures roam the construct’s halls.

The other new location is Losomn, formed from the forced merger of the Fae and Dran realms. The Dran have gone mad, with the few awakened seen as threats, while the Fae occupy the upper echelons of society and feed on the Dran’s life force. From whatever we’ve seen of Losomn, it’s a mix of medieval and high fantasy, each area reflecting the state of each race.

More Varied Level Generation

Remnant: From the Ashes was unique in that its worlds had elements of random generation. Certain events would appear in subsequent playthroughs, and enemy spawns were also changed. If you’re lucky, you may even encounter NPCs like Mud Tooth, who gave you the super-valuable Pocket Watch.

In Remnant 2, the world generation has gone even bigger. Instead of some differing events, you’ll explore unique biomes with different quests and enemies to fight. You may solve a puzzle for a musician or assist a Pan Empress on Yaesha. In both cases, there are unique mini-bosses and bosses to fight, providing even more replay value.

Classes vs Archetypes

The first game’s classes were limited – you had the Hunter for long-range precision damage; the Scrapper for up-close combat and melee; and the Ex-Cultist, a balance between the two. In Remnant 2, the classes are replaced by Archetypes, and there are five – the tanky Challenger, the support-focused Medic, the Handler with their canine companion, the Gunslinger with their quick shooting, and the Hunter, again a ranged menace.

Each has unique Traits, Perks, Prime Perks and more. For instance, when using a Skill with the Gunslinger, you reload both weapons and briefly gain infinite reserve ammo, thanks to the Prime Perk “Loaded.”

Archetype Skills

Archetype Skills are unique abilities among each and operate on cooldowns. The Handler can have their canine draw enemy threats and take less damage, granting some damage resistance to nearby allies if you activate their skill. On the other hand, you can have it act as a support, continuously healing allies and granting increased movement speed.

Meanwhile, the Gunslinger’s Quick Draw allows for quickly firing six shots among enemies present, and holding the button down allows for manual aiming. As for Weapon Mods, they’re still here, building up as you deal damage to enemies and granting special effects like incendiary or shock rounds.

Dual Archetypes

Perhaps the coolest new feature with Archetypes is being able to multiclass. After reaching a certain point, you can equip a Secondary Archetype and use one of its Skills and a trait. The Prime Perk won’t be available, but you can still unleash some potent combinations, like firing off multiple rounds with Quick Draw but using the Medic’s Wellspring to create an AoE healing area. Secondary Archetypes earn progress separately, and you can switch between Archetypes with no penalty to mix and match different combinations.

More Complex Boss Fights

Boss fights in Remnant: From the Ashes, with some exceptions, were pretty straightforward. Remnant 2, however, is looking to up the ante with more intricate boss fights.

The Mother Mind boss fight is one example – players start by battling a massive creature which swipes with its claws. It eventually destroys the platform you’re standing on, so you need to move to the next and dodge its projectiles. There are smaller enemies to deal with. How the other bosses will measure up remains to be seen, but based on the recent overview trailer, there look to be some massively overwhelming threats.

New Enemies

As seen in various trailers and gameplay till now, there are several new threats to battle in Remnant 2. Like the first game, the Root are only some of the enemies – you also deal with mutated creatures, elite warriors, horrifying aliens, massive robotic drones, and much more. The full rundown has yet to be revealed, but based on everything seen thus far, there looks to be more variety in the sequel while maintaining the challenge that players know and love (or love to hate).

New Weapons

What would a Souls-like third-person shooter be without new weapons? The traditional shotguns, assault rifles, swords and lever action rifles return, and you can upgrade and modify them differently. However, Remnant 2 also features weapons like flails and bows. Some special weapons, like the Beam Rifle from Rhom, seemingly return (based on trailers), so it should be interesting to see if any others made the jump over. Regardless, expect a more varied arsenal compared to the first game.

Neither the publisher nor the developer have revealed details about how well the game will perform on the Nintendo Switch in either the docked mode or the handheld mode. It is quite likely that the latest release will feature the two expansions that have been released for Remnant: From the Ashes since it originally hit store shelves.

Remnant: From the Ashes was originally released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One back in 2019. The game features a bleak world that is randomly generated for players, and allows for co-op play with up to two other players.

Gunfire Games revealed back in December that a sequel to Remnant: From the Ashes, simply titled Remnant 2, is currently in the works. It is set to come out some time in 2023, and will be available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. No solid release date has been announced as of yet, but the game is slated to feature randomly-generated levels and support for three-player co-op.

There’s no word on when it will launch or what we can expect from the Switch version in terms of its performance and resolution or platform-specific features. THQ Nordic only says it’s “coming soon”, so hopefully more details will be revealed in the near future.

In our review of the game back when it launched, we gave it a score of 7/10, saying, “Remnant: From the Ashes is a game with extremely derivative design, but good gunplay, solid co-op play, and smart randomization means it’s still fun, if not original, solo or with friends.” Read the full review through here.

Remnant: From the Ashes is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Gunfire Games is currently also working on Remnant 2, which is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC this year.

God of War: Ragnarok 

God of War: Ragnarok is a bombastic experience that starts out strong, and never lets off until the very end. While the campaign itself has a lot to see and do, the endgame has a lot to love as well. The nine realms are home to plenty of tough encounters that you can try to best along with Muspelhiem which houses plenty of combat challenges as well. Furthermore, there are plenty of lore-related side quests that you can pursue after the credits roll – and many of them are unmissable for any fan of the series. And did we mention the Berserker boss fights? Well, best of luck beating them!

And it seems we might be getting more at some point. As spotted by a user on Reddit, recently registered trademarks suggest that the shooter RPG might be getting a sequel. Gunfire Games has registered trademarks for both “Remnant 2” and “Remnant: From the Ashes 2” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Of course, trademark registrations on their own aren’t exactly concrete evidence that a Remnant sequel is indeed in development, but at the very least it indicates that Gunfire Games is thinking about making one. That said, since 2020’s Chronos: Before the Ashes, the studio hasn’t been too active, so it might be time it to reveal its next project.

Meanwhile, a Nintendo Switch version of Remnant: From the Ashes was also rated by the ESRB late last year, but that’s not an announcement that’s been officially made yet either.

The change is essentially a “new makeover” – the organization along with its employees remains the same. All current titles for the company like Star Trek Online, Have a Nice Death and Neverwinter will continue to receive new content. Games like Remnant: From the Ashes and the Torchlight Trilogy also remain under its purview with “more amazing new games to come!”

The only real change that will be seen is the Perfect World Entertainment logo being replaced with that of Gearbox Publishing (though it will take some time before it’s reflected in its games). Newsletters and support tickets will also now come from @GearboxSF.com.

As for Gearbox Entertainment, under which Gearbox Software and Gearbox Publishing falls, it recently acquired Lost Boys Interactive. The 220-plus employee studio worked as a support studio on Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and will look to increase this to 350 employees in the next few years.

The first batch of games in those three categories has now been revealed (courtesy of SteamDB), and there are some interesting names in each list. The list of Unsupported games is a pretty short one with just 5 games, though it does have one notable name- Persona 4 Golden. The game’s own page says that Valve is still working on adding support though, so hopefully this won’t be permanent. 

24 games so far have the Playable tag. The list includes the likes of The Witcher 3, Slay the Spire, Inscryption, Subnautica, Valheim, Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, NieR: Automata, Bravely Default 2, and more. That means that right now, these games are playable on the Steam Deck, but might still run into a few issues here and there. 

Finally, there’s the first batch of Steam Deck Verified games, which lists 38 titles right now and is already looking impressive. Games that have already been fully optimized for the upcoming handheld device include the likes of Portal 2, Celeste, Hollow Knight, Dishonored, Cuphead 2, Psychonauts 2, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 3, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Death’s Door, Death Stranding, Mad Max, Scarlet Nexus, Aliens: Fireteam Elite, Hot Wheels Unleashed, the upcoming Total War: Warhammer 3, and many others. 

You can check out the full list of the Steam Deck’s Verified, Playable, and Unsupported games so far below.

The Steam Deck is scheduled to launch in February.