Black Forest Games, the German developer of Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams and the Destroy All Humans! remakes, announced on November 11, 2026 that it has left THQ Nordic through a management buyout, ending nine years within Embracer Group.

The Offenburg-based studio simultaneously launched Third Signal, a new independent group of game studios focused on premium games for PC and console. Black Forest Games is the group's founding member, and the studio's management team now co-owns Third Signal with Third Signal Ventures.

In a joint statement, managing director Adrian Goersch said the team is 'excited to shape our own future as owners again.'

Third Signal's founder and CEO Andreas Tobler framed the move around a bet on lean studios: '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.'

Tobler, who previously held a senior position at Plaion managing its games portfolio and leading business development, says the group aims to give small teams 'the independence, resources and creative freedom' to bring their own ideas to life.

WN Hub reports that more studios will join Third Signal, though their identities remain undisclosed for now.

The buyout is a notable reversal in an industry defined by consolidation: the studio is walking away from a major publisher rather than being folded into one.

According to Inven Global, Goersch told the German trade site GamesWirtschaft that the buyout had been in the works for some time because Embracer's strategy no longer suited the studio.

PC Gamer notes the studio was among those hit by Embracer's 2024 layoffs, losing roughly 50 staff, and Inven Global reports the team now numbers around 50 people, down from more than 110 at its peak. No financial terms of the buyout were shared.

Black Forest Games was founded in 2012 by former staff of Spellbound Entertainment, the creator of the Desperados series and Arcania: Gothic 4, and is best known for Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, Fade to Silence, and the remakes of Destroy All Humans! and Destroy All Humans! 2.

VGC reports the studio was acquired by THQ Nordic in 2017, and had been attached to a game based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic The Last Ronin before development stopped this June, with an entirely new version now in development at PlatinumGames.

The move tests whether a developer-led small-studio group can thrive outside a large holding company.

Third Signal says it will bolster small development teams with support and resources while targeting top-tier premium games for PC and consoles, and Black Forest Games will keep developing and publishing under its own label.

Notably, the split is amicable: both Inven Global and WN Hub report that THQ Nordic and Black Forest Games will keep collaborating on certain game development projects. Goersch also told PC Gamer the team is 'working on an exciting new project with a great team and strong partners behind us.'

Third Signal has launched a teaser website promising more information later, per VGC, and the identity of additional member studios has not yet been confirmed. Black Forest Games is reportedly already at work on a new project with partners behind the group.

Andreas Speer, who runs the studio alongside Goersch, told Inven Global that there are 'lots of opportunities for lean, experienced teams' — a message that could resonate with other mid-sized studios weighing exits from large holding structures in the current industry climate.