Black Forest Games – the studio that remade the first two cult-classic Destroy All Humans games – has spun out from under former owners THQ Nordic and Embracer Group.

The Destroy All Humans remaker won its newfound independence through a management buyout, and wasted no time at all in co-founding Third Signal, which is described as a new group of independent studios that’ll eventually provide help and resources to other indie teams.

Destroy All Humans 2: Reprobed – Official Gameplay Trailer

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“Some of the best games of the last decade came from teams of 50, not 500. 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,” Third Signal CEO Andreas Tobler said in a press release.

Black Forest Games was one of Embracer Group’s earliest high-profile acquisitions almost a decade ago, before the company swallowed up countless big names (Lord of the Rings, Tomb Raider, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, more) in the following years and spat back a bunch shortly after. Most infamously, Embracer sold Gearbox and Borderlands during its massive internal restructuring in 2024.

It doesn’t sound like Black Forest split with the rights to the Destroy All Humans series or its permanently mean alien protag Crypto, but the studio has said it’s still working with THQ Nordic in some capacity. The original Destroy All Humans run nosedived wildly in quality after the second game, so I’m not sure how exciting a remake of, let’s say, Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed would be nowadays, though I’d definitely be interested in seeing Crypto again in another ridiculously silly, sometimes rude and anarchic adventure.