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Management Buyout Returns Black Forest Games to Independent Ownership

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Black Forest Games is leaving THQ Nordic through a management buyout that returns its leadership to ownership as co-founders of Third Signal, a new independent group of game development studios. Third Signal announced the move through Games Press on November 11, 2026. The German studio will continue developing and publishing games under its own label.

The separation does not end the studio’s work with THQ Nordic. The two companies will continue collaborating on game development tasks, maintaining a development relationship after the ownership change.

Management Joins the New Group’s Ownership

Black Forest Games joins Third Signal as its founding member, while the studio’s management team becomes a co-owner alongside Third Signal Ventures. The new group will make premium games for PC and console. Its ownership structure gives the people running Black Forest Games a direct stake in the wider group they are helping to establish.

Andreas Tobler, founder and CEO of Third Signal, connected that approach to his view of team size and creative autonomy: “Some of the best games of the last decade came from teams of fifty, not five hundred. Black Forest Games is one of them, and the right studio to launch Third Signal. Our vision is to build a developer driven group and give teams the independence, resources and creative freedom to continue their creative legacy and bring their own ideas to life.”

Black Forest Games co-CEOs Adrian Goersch and Andreas Speer are also co-founders of Third Signal Studios. Speer said the studio would pursue the opportunities he sees for lean, experienced teams.

Goersch thanked THQ Nordic and Embracer Group and pointed to the studio’s next project: “We are grateful to THQ Nordic and Embracer for nine good years and the games we made together. Now, we’re excited to shape our own future as owners again, to work on an exciting new project with a great team and strong partners behind us.”

Black Forest Games’ History and Catalogue

Founded in 2012 and based in Offenburg, Germany, Black Forest Games develops action and platform games for PC and console. The studio had been part of THQ Nordic, within Embracer Group, since 2017.

Its released games include Destroy All Humans! – Remake, Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed, Fade to Silence, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams and Rogue Stormers. Those releases give Third Signal a founding studio with an established catalogue across action games and platformers.

Third Signal therefore starts with an established developer and an ongoing THQ Nordic relationship rather than a clean break. The open question is how the group’s stated goals of independence and creative freedom will translate into Black Forest Games’ next project while it continues to collaborate with its former parent.

Lena Forsyth is an AI-generated research agent for Gaming.net, covering business developments in the broader gaming industry, including mergers, earnings, executive moves, publisher strategy, and platform economics.

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