34BigThings Bought Its Independence Back From Embracer, and That Reframes Studio Ownership

On June 23, the Carmageddon: Rogue Shift developer 34BigThings announced it was independent again. Not because Embracer shut it down. Not because a bigger publisher outbid everyone. Because the founder wrote a check. In an industry where the story of the last five years has been relentless consolidation, a founder buying back the studio he built is the kind of counterintuitive move that deserves more than a one-paragraph news item.

The Buyout, Explained According to PC Gamer, original co-founder Valerio Di

Donato has acquired full ownership of 34BigThings, Italy's second-largest independent game studio. The leadership structure going forward is Di Donato, fellow co-founder Giuseppe Enrico Franchi, and incoming chief financial officer Daniel Giagnorio. That is a tight, founder-centric team, which signals exactly the kind of autonomous operation that is difficult to run inside a 120-plus-studio conglomerate. The studio, which grew to more than 70 employees during its six years under Embracer, also has the Redout games, Mars or Die!, and Otto on its catalog, per PC Gamer. Di Donato acknowledged in the announcement that Embracer's stewardship provided, in his words, "invaluable structure and stability, while offering a first-hand look at the complexities of balancing internal development with" the realities of operating inside a large parent company. That quote is doing a lot of diplomatic work, and the fact that it reads like a LinkedIn recommendation rather than a grievance tells you this separation was clean.

Why Embracer Was in

a Position to Sell The context here is not a footnote; it is the whole story. According to PortersFiveForce.com, Embracer completed a massive restructuring in July 2025, splitting into three independent public companies after a $2 billion deal collapsed, forcing a full corporate recalibration. At its peak, per IGN, Embracer had over 120 internal studios, more than 230 games in development, and a catalog of 850 IPs. That is not a coherent creative strategy. That is a real estate portfolio that happens to ship games. The Wikipedia record of Embracer's mergers and acquisitions illustrates just how aggressively the company expanded, and Udonis documents the arc from aggressive acquirer to forced divestment in detail. The Gearbox sale is the marquee example: Take-Two acquired Gearbox Entertainment from Embracer for $460 million, per IGN, sweeping up Borderlands, Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem in the process. The 34BigThings situation is structurally different from that transaction. No third-party buyer needed convincing. A founder had the conviction and capital to reclaim what he originally built, and a distressed parent had the incentive to let it go.

What the Founder Buyout Model Actually Signals

The conventional narrative about game studio acquisitions runs one direction: small studio gets bought, founder cashes out or stays as a creative lead under new management, IP becomes a portfolio asset. What 34BigThings demonstrates is that the direction can reverse, and that a distressed parent is functionally a different counterparty than a healthy one. Embracer at peak expansion, per IGN, was operating 120-plus studios simultaneously. A studio with 70 employees and a niche racing game pedigree was not a crown jewel in that portfolio; it was a line item. That changes the negotiating dynamics considerably. The Gearbox divestment at $460 million, per IGN, was a strategic asset sale to a willing acquirer. A founder buying back a mid-size studio is a quieter transaction, but it creates a precedent that other founders inside large, struggling portfolios should notice. Kotaku documented how aggressively the industry consolidated in earlier years; what we are watching now is the partial unwinding of that era, and not every exit from a conglomerate requires a white-knight acquirer.

The Bigger Picture

for Studio Independence The Embracer restructuring, per PortersFiveForce.com, splitting into three public companies after a collapsed deal, is the kind of corporate event that reshuffles which studios are considered strategic versus expendable. For the studios that land in the expendable column, the 34BigThings outcome is the best-case scenario: organized leadership, a willing seller, and a clean break. The worst-case scenarios from this same cycle have included layoffs, shutdowns, and IP being warehoused indefinitely. Di Donato's team now controls their roadmap, their hiring, and their identity as an Italian developer. That last part matters more than it sounds. European mid-size studios have historically struggled to maintain creative autonomy inside North American or Scandinavian conglomerates, and 34BigThings re-entering the market as a fully independent entity, with 70-plus staff and an established track record, is a genuinely different proposition than a three-person team starting from zero. Watch what they ship next. A studio that just bought its freedom and has something to prove is exactly the kind of team that produces work worth paying attention to.