Funcom Acquires Full Control of Conan and all REH Properties

[terryallenuk]

Funcom acquires full control of some of the most beloved intellectual properties in popular culture and will merge them into the IP studio Heroic Signatures.

Just now
OSLO, Norway – September 14th, 2021 – Funcom today announced the acquisition of Cabinet Group, home to dozens of intellectual properties, including Conan the Barbarian, Mutant Year Zero and Solomon Kane.

Cabinet Group’s entire portfolio will be incorporated into the IP studio and Funcom subsidiary Heroic Signatures. Funcom CEO Rui Casais said he has high ambitions for the IPs and noted at least one unannounced project is already in development.

“We are currently overseeing the development of an unannounced game which will combine many of the characters in the Robert E. Howard universe,” said Casais. “And if you combine Funcom’s knowledge of games with Heroic Signatures’ knowledge of the TV/entertainment, publishing, and licensing industries, it makes us perfectly placed to take this venture to the next level. It’s exciting times ahead for us and for fans of the IPs.”

Fredrik Malmberg, co-founder and CEO of Cabinet Group, will remain onboard as President of Heroic Signatures.

“We took Cabinet Group as far as we could as an independent studio, but in order to achieve further growth, we were in need of bigger financial investments and infrastructure,” Malmberg said.

The Heroic Signatures President was responsible for acquiring and reviving the popularity of multiple IPs. Most notably, licensing deals with companies such as Penguin Random House, Panini, Titan Books, Monolith and Funcom enabled Conan the Barbarian to reach a whole new generation of fans around the world. Marvel Entertainment is publishing a new Conan comic book every month, and there is also a Netflix series based on the same IP currently in the works.

Malmberg said he’s delighted to become a fully integrated part of the Funcom family, after a relationship which dates back to the development of the online multiplayer game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures in the early 2000s. While Malmberg has pioneered an alliance across all areas of the entertainment industry, including video games, television, print media and tabletop games, he said he believes we’re only now approaching the pinnacle.

“The entertainment industry is rapidly becoming more ‘techified.’ We’ve seen brilliant examples of how games have incorporated IPs in innovative ways to reach audience numbers that vastly surpass previous levels. What Fortnite has done with The Avengers, for instance, or the impact a live in-game concert can have on awareness. We are looking forward to sitting down with other entertainment companies who share our vision and wish to take part in the exciting journey we have ahead,” he says.

ABOUT FUNCOM – Funcom is a developer and publisher of online games for PC and consoles. Funcom has provided outstanding entertainment since 1993 and continues to expand its track-record of more than twenty released games. Titles include ‘Conan Exiles‘, ‘Secret World Legends, ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’, ‘The Longest Journey’, ‘Anarchy Online’, ‘The Park’, and ‘Dreamfall: The Longest Journey’.

ABOUT HEROIC SIGNATURES – Originally a joint venture between Funcom and Cabinet Group, Heroic Signatures is a studio with a big intellectual property portfolio, managing and developing global entertainment franchises in all forms of media, including motion picture, television, and the gaming, publishing and toy/collectibles industries. Our portfolio consists of well-known brands such as Conan the Barbarian, Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane, Mutant Chronicles, Mutant: Year Zero, and Kult. For more information, please visit www.heroicsignatures.com.

conan.com/funcom-acquires-conan-the-barbarian/

[boboldman]

I don’t understand how Conan is not in the public domain yet. I assume this will mean more video games and a deluge of other general Conan stuff. Maybe we will finally get the new Conan novels that have been promised for the last couple years.

[terryallenuk]

Sept 14, 2021 9:26:58 GMT -5 boboldman said:

I don’t understand how Conan is not in the public domain yet. I assume this will mean more video games and a deluge of other general Conan stuff. Maybe we will finally get the new Conan novels that have been promised for the last couple years.

Hopefully it will help move things forward quicker as apart from games and comics things certainly have stalled the last few years on the publishing , film/tv side.

[karasuthecrow]

Sept 14, 2021 9:26:58 GMT -5 boboldman said:

I don’t understand how Conan is not in the public domain yet. I assume this will mean more video games and a deluge of other general Conan stuff. Maybe we will finally get the new Conan novels that have been promised for the last couple years.

Its due some copyright and extention of the trademark laws that the people in the USA created, you can read about it as "The Mickey Mouse Law", BUT in all the rest of the world most of Howard works already hit the public domain.

[terryallenuk]

Cabinet took a Spanish artist/sculptor to court and won the case a few years ago so I'd imagine even in Europe they should be wary about the possibility of action against them.

www.courthousenews.com/artist-thwacked-for-conan-the-barbarian-infringement/

[alexander]

I've had a look at Funcom's financials and it's not brilliant.
They've been profitable only twice between 2014 and 2019. Over this period they've lost c. $4m.
They don't have debts anymore but only $8m in cash and free cash-flow is negative.

Do they really have the means to develop anything? They are already involved in Heroic Signatures and no books have been published yet...

[karasuthecrow]

Sept 14, 2021 10:53:40 GMT -5 terryallenuk said:

Cabinet took a Spanish artist/sculptor to court and won the case a few years ago so I'd imagine even in Europe they should be wary about the possibility of action against them.

www.courthousenews.com/artist-thwacked-for-conan-the-barbarian-infringement/

As 2021 runs, they are now in the public domain, for that reason Glenat released their own versions and also Italians are doing their run with "Barbarian King" and some Portuguese comic book artis are starting to create their own adaptations from the scratch .

[karasuthecrow]

Sept 14, 2021 11:12:20 GMT -5 alexander said:

I've had a look at Funcom's financials and it's not brilliant.
They've been profitable only twice between 2014 and 2019. Over this period they've lost c. $4m.
They don't have debts anymore but only $8m in cash and free cash-flow is negative.

Do they really have the means to develop anything? They are already involved in Heroic Signatures and no books have been published yet...

If I remember correctly Funcom was brougth  by TENCET which is a giant company on China, also I feel like this is some kind of fishy movement from Cabinet side, I need to talk to a speciallist .

[alexander]

Sept 14, 2021 11:55:50 GMT -5 karasuthecrow said:

Sept 14, 2021 11:12:20 GMT -5 alexander said:

I've had a look at Funcom's financials and it's not brilliant.
They've been profitable only twice between 2014 and 2019. Over this period they've lost c. $4m.
They don't have debts anymore but only $8m in cash and free cash-flow is negative.

Do they really have the means to develop anything? They are already involved in Heroic Signatures and no books have been published yet...

If I remember correctly Funcom was brougth  by TENCET which is a giant company on China, also I feel like this is some kind of fishy movement from Cabinet side, I need to talk to a speciallist .

You're right. I had totally missed that!! So funding won't be a problem.
Tencent are also very hands-off with their acquisitions so they should not interfere with the creative side.
They seem to have a movie division that creates and distributes films based on books/comic books. According to their wikipedia page they're behind a few blockbusters. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent_Pictures
That'll re-ignite speculations about a new Conan movie on this forum...

[terryallenuk]

Sept 14, 2021 11:54:26 GMT -5 karasuthecrow said:

Sept 14, 2021 10:53:40 GMT -5 terryallenuk said:

Cabinet took a Spanish artist/sculptor to court and won the case a few years ago so I'd imagine even in Europe they should be wary about the possibility of action against them.

www.courthousenews.com/artist-thwacked-for-conan-the-barbarian-infringement/

As 2021 runs, they are now in the public domain, for that reason Glenat released their own versions and also Italians are doing their run with "Barbarian King" and some Portuguese comic book artis are starting to create their own adaptations from the scratch .

Yes the _stories_are in the Public Domain , Cabinet came down on him because he was creating figures based on the characters/likenesses.

[scottoden]

And, just because the stories are public domain DOESN'T mean you can create new stories. It means you can present the stories AS THEY APPEARED in Weird Tales. New content falls under trademark law, and as far as I know they're highly defensive of that (notice the Glenat and other offerings are straight adaptations of stories . . . only Marvel has the license to produce new material).

[Deleted]

Sept 14, 2021 14:26:04 GMT -5 scottoden said:

And, just because the stories are public domain DOESN'T mean you can create new stories. It means you can present the stories AS THEY APPEARED in Weird Tales. New content falls under trademark law, and as far as I know they're highly defensive of that (notice the Glenat and other offerings are straight adaptations of stories . . . only Marvel has the license to produce new material).

Yeah, I think that is about right, especially in the English speaking world.

In Europe I think it appears to be a little more relaxed. The Glenat adaptations seem like they are kinda 'freely adapted from the original stories by REH' rather than direct adaptations and the Italian comics appear to have new King Conan stories.

When it comes to movies I cannot see Cabinet Entertainment allowing it, even if it is a direct adaptation on screen, in any language or country. Movies are too expensive and time consuming to take the risk without some kinda deal with Cabinet.

[karasuthecrow]

There are also some new pastiches writted in Spain but they are not using the name "Conan" to directly avoid that, seems to be on the public domain but due the trademark they are acting a little more carefully.

[terryallenuk]

Malmberg talks about the sale

[karasuthecrow]

Sept 15, 2021 10:26:51 GMT -5 terryallenuk said:

Malmberg talks about the sale

Thank you so much!
For all the other user, here is a small review of the vide:

• Malmberg says that they have been thinking into getting an owner for the past couple of months but didnt want to have someone that would not understand their IPs.
  TENCENT has a "hands-off" idea of working with their companies, mostly ths is good but we can only speculate.
  The Solomon Kane series was being develop internally by Cabinet, that could explain why we havent receive an update on it.
  The Conan Netflix series has a writter and he already finished the pilot and will now focus on a series overview, due COVID everything is on zoom and really slow according to Malmberg himself.
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