Updated

Black Forest Games, developer of the Destroy All Humans remakes and Giana Sisters, has split from THQ Nordic and Embracer Group through a management buyout and is now independent. The studio, founded by former Spellbound Entertainment staff, spent nine years in the Embracer group and lost roughly 50 staff in Embracer's 2024 layoffs. Soon after the buyout it co-founded Third Signal, a new group of independent studios that will eventually offer help and resources to other indie teams. Third Signal CEO Andreas Tobler said the group aims to give teams independence, resources and creative freedom. Managing director Adrian Goersch thanked THQ Nordic and Embracer for the games made together and said the studio is excited to shape its own future. The press release says THQ Nordic and the studio continue to collaborate on game development tasks. PC Gamer noted the studio mostly made revivals of existing series. Eurogamer reported that it does not sound as if Black Forest took the Destroy All Humans rights or the character Crypto with it, and it was unsure a remake of a later game would land well today, though it would like to see Crypto again.